Jet Takutso Must Die
by Beast of Brisingr
Summary: Jet's a player, just too bad he doesn't know he's going from king to pawn in this game. The girls are going to take him down a notch while they discover the greatest cover up in the history of the Avatar world...them. AU 5000 years Post Eclipse Failure ZK
1. Dominos

A/N: Yes, this is a repost-Kinda. I felt the other one was a complete ripoff from John Tucker Must Die and decided to add my own plot in an AU. This will take place about 5000 years after the group failed on the eclipse, pretending that the rest of the events in the series didn't happen. This first chapter is more of a prologue than anything to try and set the stage.

**Twin Cities, Ba Sing Se, 5023 PE (Post Eclipse)**

"I hate traveling by car, Sokka." Katara complained, watching the high priced condominiums and houses whisk out of sight.

Sokka scowled and checked his paper again before glancing at his sister out the corner of his eye. "Well, let's go get a Flying Bison then Katara. We just need to deal with what we have."

Katara sighed as she caught a glimpse of her once sarcastic and kid brother before the 'providing father/brother/mother' mode kicked in again. "That never made sense to me." She said, shifting uncomfortably in her seat.

"What? Having to scrape by?"

"No," she grumbled, "How were the Bison able to fly five thousand years ago, but as soon as we try to get a human in the air, they go splat!" She clapped her hands together.

Sokka, the ever innovative one, looked thoughtful and drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. "Hmm, that's not necessarily true. People can hang-glide and parachute, but only if they get cleared by certain government programs. I know the government is corrupt. Dad made sure we knew it too. Everyone else is brainwashed or something."

Katara's laugh startled her in its abruptness, "You had me going 'til you had to say brainwashed." Her mood changed almost as abrupt. "When is dad gonna be home?"

"I have no idea. You know as soon as his tour is over he'll be back. He's going to stay by his troops until he can find a way to bring The Leader down. Plus, his general got you into this great school and got us an apartment." Sokka pulled their rusty _'03 Land Rider_ into the parking lot of the Three Waters apartment complex. "Plus, they moved everything in for us." He said as they parked.

"I guess, but school has already been in for, like, a month, Sokka. That and I don't like leaving Gran Gran all alone in the South. You know it gets cold there." Katara said worriedly, unbuckling her seat belt as the car shuddered off.

"Kat, is Gran Gran really gonna let a little cold weather bring her down?" He laughed, taking the keys from the ignition and shoving them in his pockets. "If you really feel bad, I'm sure she'll send some stewed sea prunes for you."

Katara turned slightly green. "Great." She said sarcastically and followed her brother to a bottom level, two bedroom apartment.

"Home sweet home, Katara." Sokka opened the front door with a flourish. "Wow! This is awesome! The rooms are up the stairs, I need to get something from the kitchen. Go check it out!"

Katara rolled her eyes at her brother but grinned, caught up in his childish excitement and ran up the stairs. She opened the door with her name and smiled softly at the picture of her family on a simple wooden dresser. It was the last picture they had taken of her with her mom before she was murdered by a vicious gang called Ozai's Angels. Rumor had it the man lived in a mansion somewhere in Twin Dragons City.

"Surprise!" Sokka shouted and she turned around to hear soft whimpering sounds coming from his arms. A small mutt of a puppy squirmed in his arms before he dropped it on her bed. "His name is Foo-Foo-Cuddly-Poops."

Katara giggled and plopped on her bed, fighting off the puppy from slobbering her face. "He's slimy! And that's a huge name for a tiny puppy!" She accused through her giggles.

Sokka laughed with her and sat down next to her. "Fine, we'll call him Foof for short." His smile faltered as he looked down at her. "He's kind of a multi-purpose gift. I don't want you to be stuck here alone and he will be your portable heater for the winter."

"What do you mean?" Katara asked, confused.

Sokka rubbed his arm subconsciously. "Well, we can't afford to run the heater this winter. We need to pay half the rent for this place."

"Well, that doesn't sound too bad. How much is it?" He mumbled. "How much, Sokka?"

"Two grand." He muttered looking down.

"Two grand!" Katara cried with shock. "How in the world can we get two grand?"

"Well, dad got me a job with his friend called The Mechanic. It should pay about five hundred to six hundred dollars a week. That should cover rent and food if we're careful." Sokka lay back on the bed and reached over to pat Foof on the head.

"By the Spirits, Sokka! I'm not gonna let you do that alone! What about Ba Sing Se University, huh? What about fun? There's no way you're giving up all your money for this place!" Katara prodded him in the chest. "You hear me?"

Sokka gave a weary grin. "Dad knew you would say that. He got you a job too."

"Really?" Katara asked, surprise lighting her features. "Where?"

.:.:.

"Welcome to the Jasmine Dragon!" A deep and rumbling but calming voice came from a portly man with tangled gray beard and hair in a cream apron. Kind albeit sharp golden eyes sparkled at the two siblings under wild gray eyebrows. "My name is Iroh and you must be Miss Katara and Master Sokka. You look so much like your parents." He smiled at them and gestured to an empty booth.

"We really look like our parents?" Katara asked excitedly, giving a small bow to the old man.

"'None sees more than a Dragon, but a Dragon' and I am the Dragon of the West!" Iroh chortled, hands on his belly, missing the confused looks the siblings gave each other. "Yes, you have come for your job Miss Katara?"

"Yes, sir. But I have school until almost four and I can't miss." She said nervously, folding her hands in her lap.

"Ah! You will be going to school with my nephew! I'm sure you would be great friends." He said with a knowing smile. "Now, let's see if we can get you a reasonable schedule."

.:.:.

Katara checked her reflection in the mirror for the umpteenth time. She wore a blue wrap-around dress with dark blue leggings underneath and a white belt to match the trim. She wore simple fur lined boots made of turtle-seal leather so supple, it felt like she was walking barefoot.

She nervously fingered the silky ribbon that held her mother's necklace around her neck and rubbed the coin-sized pendant with her thumb. The glinting blue matched her eyes perfectly as she scrutinized her face for any blemishes. Her full lips were pursed in concentration as she spread the tiniest bit of copper onto her lids. She liked the way it looked on her skin. The copper lifted brown tones to glow through her mass of curly hair.

She quickly tied a navy blue ribbon and drew her hair into a low pony-tail, two hanks of hair falling in loops from the silky material.

Faux sapphires sparkled on her ear lobes as she spun in a circle and flicked a speck of dust off her jeans. She smiled cautiously at the mirror before wiping the makeup off her eyes. _There_, she thought, _now I look like mom._ She finally grinned.

:..:.

"Zuko!" Iroh shouted through his nephew's door, pounding as loud as he could to wake the still sleeping teen. He heard a thud and nodded with satisfaction as his nephew fell from his bed.

What, Uncle?" Zuko stumbled to the door, yanking it open and shaking his hair out of his bleary gold eyes.

"School." Iroh said simply and turned, leaving an uncomprehending Zuko behind. He knew it clicked when he heard Zuko yell and slam his door shut. He yanked on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt before taking a glob of gel and running his hand through his hair and shaking it.

"Uncle, where's my backpack?" Zuko ran into the kitchen, grabbing his car keys from the rack and looked around wildly. Iroh handed him a black and red bag. "Thanks. Can I have—" Iroh threw him a power bar. "And a—" a tea bottle was lobbed at him.

Zuko ran into the hallway, skidding on a floor rug, almost knocking over a stone monkey statue. "Thanks. Have you seen my—?"

"By the door!" Iroh yelled, shaking his head at his nephew's sporadic actions.

Zuko shoved his feet into his shoes, still hopping in them as he ran to his car. He blew out a breath in the cool car and instantly it was a few degrees warmer.

He caught a reflection of himself in the rear view mirror and grinned before scowling. _I'm a moody, underprivileged/deprived son and I feel nobody likes me_, he thought to himself, feeling a stony look cover his face. He looked in the mirror again, only to see his eyes dancing with mirth.

_Well_, he thought, _my reputation would be ruined if people would actually look me in the eyes. Seeing as they don't_, he smirked, _Perfect_.

.:.:.

"Ty Lee! Hurry your ride is here!" her mother called up the steps. "No, no, no Ky Lee, the other bowl! Ry Lee! Get your cat-monkey off the table..." He voice faded as she got further away.

"Coming!" she said sweetly back, knowing her mother could hear her anyways. She checked over her appearance again.

Hair: braided and looking cute but still fierce with a perfect bump.

Clothes: Perfect amount of pink. Cute skirt with matching pink top, each slightly ruffled.

Nails: Manicured with pink under coat, jeweled flowers on the thumbs and perfect white half-moons on the tip.

Skin: no blemishes with perfectly smooth and tan from spending the summer at Ember Island.

Lips: perfectly blended pink lip gloss and no wrinkles from smiling.

Eyes: Lightly lined and lashes curled to accentuate smoky, grey eyes.

"Ty Lee!" _How strange_, she thought, _mother talking to me twice in one day?_

She glanced in the mirror, not letting her smile falter. _Perfect_.

.:.:.

Gloves. Check. Headband. Check. Cargo pants. Check. Breathable shirt. Check. Versatile shoes. Check. Bed made. Check. Suki grinned at her reflection in the mirror, showing perfectly straight teeth. Killer, kick-ass attitude. Check.

_Hmm, it's not fair that I go to school but those lazy bums dropped out and get to sleep in..._

She suddenly sprinted from her room, catching speed so she could jump swiftly from one side of the hallway to the other, knocking on doors as she went.

"Suki!" she heard yells of exasperation from her waking sisters, just back from military training. She caught a glimpse of her reflection in a mirror along the hallway. Her fly away hair now danced around her face with the copper color highlighting her sea green eyes to shining levels. _Perfect_.

Azula impatiently brushed invisible dirt off her dress. The red and gold fabric tied in the center of her chest, accentuating it before dropping into soft folds of cloth. It haltered around her neck where her dark brown hair fell straight down her back. Her gold-copper eyes glittered dangerously under perfectly curled eye lashes as she waited for the chauffeur to open her door.

_Thank the spirits I was adopted by a rich family_, Azula drawled in her head as a recurring thought, _any less would be less than..._

She opened a compact, checking for any imperfections. And finding none she snapped it closed. Her reign over the school wouldn't be stopped by some mere blemish. Teens scurried away from the limousine as her chauffeur finally got out to open her door. She smirked. _Perfect_.

:..:.

His dark brown eyes flashed everywhere under his lids as he walked through the hall, nodding his head at anyone cool enough to address him. "Hey, Jet." The brunette with the fiery gold eyes looked at him appreciatively, watching as he conquered the halls he ruled. He flipped his hair out of his eyes, giving her a grin before moving on.

Many others called out his name, as he passed. He already knew he owned the school. It was just a matter of reminding himself. _Ruling is something I was raised for_, Jet thought arrogantly, _starting at this school seems_... He managed to catch the eye of two other girls in the next five seconds... _Perfect_.

**E/N; So, some definite changes. I will explain more about the flying as the story goes on and the other chapters are much longer. Basically, they have the same technology as today, just in different ways and there is nothing motorized that can fly. Also, I don't do my own characters so you're stuck with the original cast. **_Bummer._

**Drop me a review!**


	2. Break Anotha

**A/N: This chapter is longer! The plot will start developing this chapter too**

"If you preen anymore you're gonna disappear." A low drawl reached Katara's ears from the doorway. Sokka leaned there with an amused expression on his tired face.

Katara grinned and leaned back on the bathroom counter then eyed him with crossed arms. "You should still be asleep, Sokka. You know you have a ten hour shift today."

Sokka ruffled his already rumpled hair, free from its normal warrior tail. His white t-shirt had a few holes in it, some paint splashed on the faded band logo. Blue basketball shorts hung baggy while silver and blue dog tags shimmered at his throat, a gift from his father. Katara's breath caught just like every time she looked at them. _Iroh is right_, she thought, _he looks just like dad._ She shook the thought from her head as Sokka smiled.

A proud look entered his eyes as he did so. "Come on Kat, it's not every day I get to see my sister go off to her first day of high school."

Katara gave a watered down chuckle. "I've already gone to one first day of high school this year, Sokka." She kissed him on the cheek as she walked through the door connecting to her room. "Thank you Sokka. I really love you for this." She said seriously.

Sokka grinned and swatted the air like an annoying fly as hovering there. "Aw, stop it! You're embarrassing me! Just bring home some hot friends okay?" He trailed behind her and sat on her bed to pet the sleeping puppy.

Katara giggled. "Yeah I'll do that." Her face turned serious again. "Just go back to sleep. I'll get some more hours this weekend."

"One condition." Sokka said with a sly smile. "Actually two conditions."

"Oh?" Katara raised a brow.

"One; you will save half of what you earn for college. If you do that, I'll try to do the same." Katara nodded in agreement, watching as Sokka's face got very serious. "Two; under no circumstances are you to get a boyfriend and make me go Boomerang on his butt."

Katara grinned and whipped him in the ear with a stream of water she bent from the frosted window. "Yes, dad." She said, ducking from a halfhearted swipe and grabbed her backpack from the foot of her bed. "Have a great day at work and don't cut any fingers off. I know your boss' wooden fingers look cool but I don't want to be pulling splinters every time you scratch your-"

"Have a nice day at school Katara!" Sokka yelled and she laughed, grabbing her fur lined parka from the couch and entered the frigid fall air.

A chill crept down her spine and she quickly stuffed her arms into her parka, hunching her shoulders against the cold. She shook her head fiercely, the loops framing her face fluttering with the movement. She wasn't going to go to school with her head hung and her tail between her legs. She was going to be strong like her brother and her mother.

_"Katara," Kaya said pulling her small daughter into her arms and nuzzling her neck, causing the small girl to giggle uncontrollably. "Are you brave?" She looked down at Katara, smiling deep in her sapphire-eyes._

_"Yes, mommy. I'm braver than anyone. I can get rid of all the snakes and bugs that Sokka screams at." Katara giggles again as her mother brushes a strand of hair out of her eyes._

_"What do you do with the animals, my daughter?" Kaya asked worriedly._

_Katara smiled, baring her missing front two teeth with pride. "I put 'em in the woods. Gran-Gran showed me where to put 'em."_

_"You are very brave, Kat. Will you watch out for your brother? One of you needs to be brave." Kaya lifted her necklace off and tied it on to Katara. Katara's eyes turned as big as the pendant._

_"Mommy, why did you give me your necklace?"_

_"A wolf knows when her cubs are growing up. You are growing up Katara with a wolf's bravery. Now give me a growl."_

_Katara bared her teeth in a very wolfish grin and growled deep in her throat._

Katara smiled grimly, squaring her shoulders and walking tall to the school. _This year will be different_, she thought, _this year I'll be different._

Sokka watched from the door with mixed emotions, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. A growl issued from his feet and he looked down to see Foof looking at him with a pitiful expression. "Yes alright. I'll get you food but you have to pee first."

.:..:.

Zuko drummed the steering wheel of the car he bought. The thing was a piece of work, an old bug that had broken down at some repair shop. He bought it for seven hundred and paid double for repairs, but he was proud of it. He had earned the money himself, not relying on the money from his father like his brother. His uncle hand painted flames on one side when he'd had too much ginseng tea and felt ambitious.

He surveyed his surroundings with a cold look, barely glancing out the windows at the students entering the school. He shifted into the turn lane for the school, glaring at the pretentious limousine he knew belonged to a girl colder than he. Traffic was backed up of course, all the students wanting to show off their wheels for a little popularity. Once it got to a complete stand still he ruffled his gelled hair, (still not dry yet.) amber eyes now looking around bored.

A flash of blue and brown caught his right eye, his head turning to reveal a wine stain of a scar. He focused his eyes, seeing a girl with dark skin and long bouncing curls tied back with a ribbon walking quickly and tall into the school parking lot. Cerulean eyes flashed at him, gaze defiant and strong for a moment before she walked in front of his car and into the school.

Naturally, Zuko stared, for the entire world looking like a glare. _Hmm_, he thought, engaging the clutch again before pulling forward a couple inches. The engine groaned and shook a little. _Great_, he thought, _because I really want to spend more money on this rust pile._ A horn blared behind him, shaking him from his thoughts.

He leveled a stare in the rear view mirror, watching the sophomore with a beanie gulp and rub his head nervously. He snorted, pulled forward and into a parking spot before killing the engine.

He looked toward the school, then slung his backpack over his shoulder, shoved pale hands into his pockets and started toward the school with his head down.

.:..:.

Katara sighed with relief as she dropped her bag to the ground and slumped against the wall of her apartment. The puppy yapped from inside his kennel, scratching at the door. "Hey, Foof." She said pulling him out and clipping a leash onto his harness. At least he's true to his name, she thought dully, he's fluffy, cuddly and he poops.

Ten minutes later she was on a bus to her job in town, back pack in tow. Five minutes after that she was tying an apron around her waist and grabbing and order pad with a pencil. Silently sighing, she pasted a smile on her face and greeted a table of old men hovering around a giant Pai Sho table. "May I help you fine young gentlemen?" She asked, lighting the customary candle on the hanging tray above their heads.

"I'll have the house tea, dear." A wizened man with calmly closed eyes said gently. "I believe Piandao will have green," he gestured to a man with dark brown hair and trimmed goatee/beard. "And a pot of Jasmine for the rest of the table."

"I want chocolate milk!" An old man with a slightly bulging eye cried, planting his hands on the table with a thud.

"And Bumi will have a glass of chocolate milk." The man said patiently and gestured for Katara to lean down. "Be sure to use low fat milk and half the syrup that is normally used." He said in a whisper, glancing at Bumi with mischievous grey eyes. "He doesn't need any more sugar."

Katara felt her fake smile be replaced with a genuine one, relaxing her stance and finishing her notes with a flourish. "I'll be right back with your order then." She bowed to the table and left to pin her order on the rack to the tea room.

"Ah, I see you've met my book club, Miss Katara." Iroh's warm voice greeted her.

"Yes, they are...interesting." She said with a wry grin.

Iroh chuckled, planting his hands over his belly. "Exactly what my nephew said! You did order Bumi's drink with half syrup correct? He usually orders three more before the night is over." He shuddered and patted Katara on the shoulder before striding into the kitchens.

She shook her head wryly and turned at the chime for her order. She took the tray, balancing the drinks and avoiding chairs or tables without the tea moving from their original positions.

She set the drinks down to their designated drinkers and left to grab a pitcher of water. Heading back to the table, she stumbled over a chair a girl suddenly pushed away from her table. The pitcher sloshed perilously close to her stately dressed mother.

"Toph!" The mother cried, taking the teen's hand and slapping it sternly. "I'm sorry dear, my daughter is blind you see."

"Not a problem, M'am. No harm done." Katara said calmly, eyeing the girl's oh-so-innocent look with a skeptical look before returning to the Pai Sho table.

She topped the glasses and turned to leave when someone gently grabbed her elbow. "Quite impressive, Miss Katara, how you managed to keep a full glass from over flowing." Piandao said in a cryptic tone, nodding to the emblem on her necklace peaking through the collar of her shirt.

"Yes," Bumi said brightly, tilting his head to the side. "That was very _cool_!"

The other men shook their heads and groaned. "Let's let Miss Katara get back to work, gentlemen." The oldest man said serenely, bowing his head to Katara and she felt a phantom breeze ruffle her hair loops.

"Ah," she said slowly. "Thank you." She bowed again and left eyes slightly narrowed in thought before greeting more tables and taking more orders.

The night passed by at a steady pace and Katara found herself enjoying her job. The smells of tea and meals such as Jook wafted through the air, creating a relaxing atmosphere. The next hour she was to cover the more acclaimed guests.

Walking over to table six she opened the pad, rifling through a few pages. "Can I take your order?" she asked lifting her eyes from the pad and her eyes widening in shock. This could be the most gorgeous guy she'd ever seen! His brown eyes glinted under dark brown shaggy hair, his flawless face cocky and sure of himself.

What was his name? Oh, Jet Takutso, the most popular guy in school. Her eyes narrowed quickly in suppressed anger and she gritted her teeth, the water in the vase on the table frosted the glass, making it sparkle dimly.

_"Move." A voice said from over Katara's head as she opened her locker. "This is Jet's new locker." A giant of a boy said, deep voice rumbling in her ears._

_"Oh, really?" She raised her brows and crossed her arms. "And who is this 'Jet' guy?"_

_"Don't act dumb, princess." A voice drawled behind her. "Hmm, this is the perfect location for my fifth locker. Don't you agree Pipsqueak?"_

_"Why does it matter to him? That's _my _locker!" Katara growled, planting her hands on her hips. _

_"Did you hear something?" Jet asked a giggling girl as he drew an arm around her._

_"Oh, it's not worth it." Katara huffed, resolving to see Jet slip and fall in the cafeteria by the ice machines later. She whirled around and stomped up to the front office, brushing past a kid with his hands stuffed in his pockets._

_"No. Come back in two minutes." Came the smooth reply, not even looking up Jet told her._

Turning stiffly, Katara made her way back to the kitchen, biting her lip and forcing herself to be calm. _Calm? How can I possibly be calm? He treats me like sludge that Foof leaves in the courtyard._ Katara thought furiously, vowing not to speak to her table for the rest of the night.

She returned to the table five minutes later and wasn't surprised to see a seemingly dim-witted cheerleader sitting at the table with them. The girl smiled brightly at Katara before ordering a sparkling water, emphasis on the _sparkle_.

"I'll have the Fire Whiskey." Jet said smoothly, grasping the girl's handing ad causing her to giggle.

"I'll need to see your I.D." Katara asked sweetly.

Jet looked up startled and frowned at her. "I'll have the same as Ty Lee then."

"I'll have that right out." Katara said with a fake smile. She gathered her order ad delivered it without problem and later returned to give him his check only to stop in her tracks. A different girl sat in the seat Ty Lee vacated, calculating gold eyes looking Katara up and down before deeming her unworthy.

"A clean glass for Azula. This one seems dirty." He lifted Ty Lee's glass in the air. "Oh, and two house salads, light on the dressing."

Katara nodded stiffly, taking the glass and returning with two house salads. A new glass full of sparkling water was placed on the table next to Azula's dangerous looking nails.

Katara returned an hour later only to find _another_ girl sitting at the table with Jet. She fought the look of disgust on her face, exchanging the glass without a word along with two more house salads. The girl smiled at Katara in thanks, sea-blue eyes genuine.

Katara returned ten minutes later to find Jet alone at the table, texting on his Brick Berry. He casually drew a hand in the air. "Check."

_Journal_

_I'm so freaking mad! That jerk Jet totally threw me to the ground(figuratively) today and he had the nerve to show up to the restaurant I work at too! (I got my locker changed, it's now by the science labs, not a good idea but at least they don't know where I am.)_

_The first date I served—yes the first date—was with a girl named Ty Lee. Bright, peppy pink Ty Lee. She's captain of the Cheer Team and Poms. Lucky for me they just ordered drinks. I delivered them then came back to give him the check then wouldn't you know it; there was another girl there. Azula? Yes, that's her name. She controls student government and in control of the fashion in the school. I got their orders then returned with them only to find, yeah you guessed it._

_They all finally left and I bused the table, everyone else had left at this point, and found five dollars. Five dollars! For all the crap I was put through I should've gotten at least ten! That's when I came home and put all the money I earned tonight in the envelope on the desk and took Foof out before writing in here. Now I'm incredibly tired and my hand is starting to drag, so good night to you._

_Katara_

.:..:.

Thunder woke Katara in the morning with a start. She yanked her sheets up to her chin as Sokka burst through the door. "Hey can't you wait until I'm decent?" she squeaked

Sokka ignored her question and waved the envelope of money over his head. "Where'd you get all this money?"

Katara frowned above her sheets. "I bused tables last night. I was waiting hand and foot on Mister High And Mighty all night so I couldn't bus many other tables. I'm sorry."

"Sorry?" Sokka squeaked too. "Sorry? Why are you sorry? There's five hundred dollars in here in hundreds alone!"

"What?" Katara draped her sheets over her shoulders, opening the envelope. "Damn!" She cursed, glaring at the money. "That jerk's trying to buy me off!"

"Who?" Sokka asked, obviously not pleased with her reaction to the money.

"This jerk that hooks up with all the girls at school. I've only heard the story a thousand times from this girl at work." Katara ran a hand through her tangled hair. "Jet dates girls from different cliques at his school so that they never interact and convinces the girls who he dates to keep their affairs secret from his father by telling them that he is not allowed to date during football season. Not to mention he's selfish, arrogant and rude. He stole my locker so late he slipped on something. How clumsy of him."

"You didn't—?"

"No, but I wanted to. He just slipped in front of the ice machine. As far as he knows, it was leaking." Katara said darkly before glancing at the clock and yelping at the time, running into the bathroom to get ready.

.:..:.

Zuko was pulling into a parking space when an orange and tan blur ran past his car. The girl he'd seen earlier turned her head, eyes calling a silent apology to him, light brown hair whipping into them as she ran into the school.

_Hmm, _he thought again, resolving to actually meet the girl.

.:..:.

Katara panted slightly as she rounded the corner to the gymnasium, running into a pot-bellied man with long gray hair and beard, knocking the rest of the air from her lungs, herself and the clipboard in his hands to the ground. She groaned and stood up with her hair in even larger disarray then before. "I'm so sorry. I really need to get to class." She told the man, handing him the clipboard with a shaking hand and finally met his eyes. "Iroh! What are you doing here? Sorry I ran into you!" She said, too confused to be worried.

"No, no. The fault is mine, Miss Katara. I heard someone in a hurry and stopped to listen." His eyes scanned the rows of ID photos on his clipboard then smiled. "Ah, I see I will be a substitute for your class. A friend of mine owns this great establishment so I teach when he needs teachers. I believe you met him last night. His name is Master Piandao." Her eyes lit with recognition and he smiled, pleased. "Don't worry about this tardy, your beauty isn't marred but you may clean up if you wish."

Katara blushed deeply and gathered her things into the locker room. She missed seeing a young man with black hair, golden eyes and a scarred face come up to Iroh to punch him lightly on the arm.

Katara groaned inwardly as the class took the fourth lap around the gym, the plaited braid in her hair swishing and slapping her back. As if I didn't run enough on my way here, she thought with a growl. Finally slowing with the group in front of volleyball nets.

Katara found herself on the same side of the court as the three girls Jet dated the night before. The hair rose on the back of her neck as she felt herself being watched. She turned to the teacher Iroh and the boy with golden eyes she'd seen before from somewhere. She observed him from a distance, studying the shadow his shaggy black hair threw over his left eye. _Hmm_, she thought, _terrible lighting in here._ His eyes briefly met hers so she turned and fiddled with the curl by her face as she waited for the game to begin. Ty Lee, the pink one, cart wheeled and somersaulted around the court, causing the cheerleaders to chatter excitedly. She and the girl Suki exchanged rolls of eyes and laughed amongst themselves.

"Hi, I'm Suki. You were serving at the restaurant last night." Suki held out her hand and Katara shook it with a smile.

"Yeah. My name's Katara. So how long have you been dating Jet Takutso?" She asked and Suki grimaced.

"We started last night and ended a quarter of the way through the date. He used the restroom and I found a napkin with lipstick marks in his chair. So I left. Did he tip you well?" Suki was about to ask when a sharp voice sounded behind them.

Gold eyes glittered dangerously under perfect eye brows and lashes. It was Azula, the second girl Jet had dated last night and she made it clear that she'd thought she was the only one who had. Katara eyed her warily as the girl prowled toward her. Two perfect bangs framed her dangerously beautiful face. She seemed to be Katara's age but a head taller and a size two. "I must have misheard you. Did you say that you dated Jet Takutso last night?" She said voice were eerily calm, attracting a third party.

"Hi!" A high pitched voice cried and perfectly pink Ty Lee approached the three girls. "Don't believe Azula. Everyone who's anyone knows that Azula always lies. Anywho, I went to the Jasmine Dragon with him last night. It was so romantic! Oh, but you have to keep it secret!"

"Because he's not allowed to date during football season right?" Katara asked sarcastically, earning puzzled glares. She sweat dropped. "Oh, trust me. I'm not dating him."

Azula harrumphed and crossed her arms to glare threateningly at the three other girls. "Well if anyone is gonna date him, its gonna be me. I don't share and I don't do leftovers."

"Fine by me." Suki growled, annoyed at the female sex prostrating itself over dating a player. "Ugh, this is stupid."

"Speaking of stupid," Azula sneered, cocking her head at Ty Lee. "What's with this stupid sweat band?" She reached over and snapped the band across the other girl's eyes.

"Hey!" She cried, uncovering her wide seemingly innocent gray eyes. She did a flip of sorts into the air and vaulted off Azula's head, ripping the hair tie out, causing a cascade of brown hair to cover her face. "Oops! What's with your stupid hair."

Katara and Suki backed away uneasily, glancing at Iroh who the cheerleaders had pulled aside to complain about playing. Things were about to get ugly.

Unintelligible cries were heard as Azula and Ty Lee launched themselves at each other. Katara lunged for Azula and Suki for Ty Lee, both ducking and weaving to pry the girls apart.

A pink blur flipped past Katara and dove for Azula. Suki jumped, flipping backward and snapping out her right leg to hit Ty Lee in the elbow as her left leg was punched by a pink clad arm.

Azula barely dodged Katara and lunged for Ty Lee before being redirected in a jerky movement, following Katara's strange swaying

"Stay away from him!"

"He's mine!"

"I'm cheer captain! He's mine."

"You're both idiots!" Suki yelped, grabbing Ty Lee's long braid and yanking her to the ground as Katara managed to knock Azula to the ground.

Slim hands yanked Azula away from Ty Lee while she held her face in her hands, blood was pouring from her nose. The female teacher with swirling snake tattoos and snapping black eyes pinned Azula to the ground with one foot on her shirt and held her arms tightly behind her back.

The boy Katara had seen earlier held Ty Lee down with a hand on her shoulders and her long braid in the other. Suki tried to stumble to her feet, rubbing her leg as it failed to support her weight.

"This guy is cheating on all of you and instead of taking it out on him you're beating the shit out of each other?" Katara snapped, glaring at them all and nursed a friction burn wrapping around her arm

"Detention. All of you." The female teacher said quietly and dangerously, letting go of Azula as though she'd been shocked.

"We tried to stop the fight!" she gestured at herself, Suki and the golden eyed boy.

"You were both active participants in the fight." The teacher spat. "And you get detention for mishandling a girl." The boy narrowed his eyes but said nothing before returning to a frowning Iroh's side.

Katara groaned. Today was just not her day.

"_What do you mean you got detention?"_ Sokka's worried voice carried over the phone line, the sound of power tools and engines whirring in the back ground informed Katara that he was at work.

"I broke up a fight. Look, my last two periods were free so I finished my homework then. I'll go to work as soon as I can… Yes love you. Bye." She hung the phone back on the receiver with a sigh.

"Boyfriend?" The gold eyed boy asked, ruffling his hair with a pale hand.

"No… my brother. I didn't—" She started to say when he told her.

"Zuko. And you're Katara." She gave him a queer look and he shrugged, face impassive. "My uncle, Iroh, told me."

"Oh! So you're Iroh's nephew! He keeps mentioning you! Well it's very nice to meet you Zuko." She clasped his hand in a warm gesture. "You're very lucky to have him as an uncle. He's sweetheart and says nothing but good things about you. I ran into him earlier." She said sheepishly. "Probably not a good thing to do to your boss."

Zuko's expression didn't change but his eyes shone with mirth. "Yeah, probably not. I think three feet is a new record for people bouncing." He said with a straight face that could rival the body guards of The Leader.

Katara giggled and scowled halfheartedly, punching him lightly on the arm. "Hey, I—"

"No talking, this is detention people. Mr. Takutso, help me get these books loaded onto the shelves." Mr. Fong, a short man with little man complex, was on detention duty was none too pleased with the task.

Zuko raised his brows at Katara and trailed after the teacher, hands in his pockets.

So he was the other Takutso. He was so different from Jet! Katara settled into a seat and the three girls whipped toward her.

"So," Azula sneered, drawing her jacket tighter around her shoulders. She had been freezing cold since the fight. "I talked to Jet today. He told me that I'm the only girl in his life, you are just jealous of what we have. It's special. And—"

"And if we are to have a relationship, how could he anyways? He's got football and his father doesn't want him dating. Without trust, how can we be anything?" Ty Lee continued anxiously.

The sneer dropped from Azula's face to one of anger. "How dare he!" she whisper-yelled.

Suki shrugged, indifferent. "I already broke up with him. I could care less."

"Well, he should get the best." Azula turned the rest of the way toward Ty Lee who was sporting a bruised elbow and a slightly swollen nose. "You should break up with him Ty Lee."

"Why should I break up with him when you said he deserves the best?" Ty Lee glared, planting her perfectly manicured nails on the table in front of her, reminding Azula of the bloody furrows that ran down her forearm under her Li & Lo custom made jacket.

"Please, why would he want some annoying, preppy, chattery little brat like you when he can have the queen of the school?"

"Yeah Queen B of the school. How could that be what a guy like Jet would want?" Ty Lee clenched her fists, imprinting half-moons into her palms.

"We all know what Jet wants. And we all know Little Miss Cheerleader brings it on." Azula snarled, leaning closer to Ty Lee and voice rising.

"Oh, just shut up!" Katara muttered.

"Excuse me?" Azula's sharp eyes turned on her.

Katara looked startled that she'd heard. "Well, it's just that you guys are arguing over a guy who's been blatantly cheating on you both—technically you three—and you're still taking it out on each other. How long has it been since you've all been dating him?"

"Last night was the first date." Suki said, leaning back two chair legs, and lifted her pant leg to show a creeping bruise running down her leg.

"Me too!" Ty Lee cried, looking guiltily at Suki's leg. She heard Azula mutter and affirmation. "I can't believe I got in a fight over a guy I dated once."

"At least you realized how foolish fighting over this guy was." Katara said in a motherly tone, shaking her head in disappointment.

"Well what would you do? If we were to dump him he'd just get another girl in a heartbeat." Ty Lee pointed out, relaxing her hands and examining her nails.

"It's simple really. Make him pay." They stared at her and Katara cleared her throat nervously. "If I were you I'd want revenge. Obviously you guys have pride issues, just like him. You shouldn't have a problem relating to him and crushing him."

"What's your name?" Azula asked, studying her with her calculating eyes.

"Kat—"

"No talking!" The Fong said angrily and Zuko sat next to Katara. They exchanged glances before doing work of some sort.

.:..:.

"Sokka! Get the door!" Katara yelled, plaiting her thick hair up as she leaned out the bathroom door, Foof yapping at her heels.

Katara growled when Sokka didn't answer and ran down the steps, skipping a couple at a time. She opened the door, slightly out of breath to see three people she'd never expect to see.

Azula crossed her arms over her chest, eyeing Katara in disdain. "We all want your help." She said gesturing to Ty Lee and Suki who were both standing next to her on the platform outside Katara's apartment door.

"Umm, why?" Katara rubbed her arms from the chill. "Actually tell me once we're inside. Come in."

"We wanna kill you know who." Suki grinned mischievously at her new friend, stepping through the doorway after shuffling her feet on the welcome mat. Suki patted Foof's head as she knelt in the foyer. "Ty Lee is surprisingly the most ok with all of this."

"All of what?" Katara asked, confused. The three other girls exchanged glances and Azula motioned for Ty Lee.

"Well," she said excitedly, gray eyes huge and sparkling in the smiling face. "We're going to socially murder Jet. After all, who said it better than you?"

"What?"

"It should be clear by now, dear Katara." Azula drawled, examining her deadly, sharpened nails. She looked up at Katara, gold eyes hard with malice. "Jet Takutso must die."

**E/N: Pow! Alright I got 100 hits in one day! Woo! Updates should happen regularly once a week, probably on a Sunday. Told ya the next chapters would be longer.**

**Let me Know if anything doesn't fit!**

**Drop a review!**

**E:N2 12/3/2011 YOU GUYS DIDN'T TELL ME THE JOURNAL ENTRY WAS MESSED UP! I FREAKED OUT READING IT! AHH! It's fixed now...**


	3. Sick Muse

**A/N; Yeah, I know. You should totally love me because I updated 2 days early! Oh, and my dear reviewers, you slightly failed me! How come no one told me the italics were off and the journal entry was crap? Anyways, it's fixed and enjoy this next chapter!**

**Sick Muse-Metric**

"You actually live here" Azula sneered, observing the apartment with her nose in the air.

Katara had been closing the door, she opened now it and with the same dry tone she replied. "Yes. And you may leave if it doesn't suit your standards. How did you figure out where I live anyways?"

Azula stared down her nose at the girl. She didn't seem embarrassed. "My chauffeur drove by you while you were walking—you call this a house?"

Suki snorted and shoved her way past Azula to hug Katara around the shoulders. "You see 'Tara. These two," she looked pointedly at Azula, who was scowling and Ty Lee who was smiling brilliantly. "Have decided they do want revenge. And seeing as you are the one who came up with the suggestion, they want you to help them."

Katara stared at her as though she'd grown another head. "You can't be serious. Why are you here Suki?"

"Oh, I'm just along for the ride." Suki smirked and Katara could pretty much hear the gears whirring to come up with cruel torture procedures. Katara had found out earlier that day that both of Suki's parents were in that field of work for a military service.

"Oh! Your puppy is just too cute! Just like a baby Saber Tooth Moose-lion!" Ty Lee squealed, picking him up and turning him over to rub his belly.

Katara found herself smiling weakly and gestured the three girls into the sitting room. She rubbed the back of her head in a very Sokka-ish way. "Sorry, we don't have any soda here. Just Dai Li-cious Water."

Suki flashed a smile with a thumb up. "Great, Dai Li-cious is the best!"

Katara entered the kitchen shaking her head and glancing at the clock on the stove. _Well, this had better be quick_, she thought before grabbing her notepad from the counter. She found the water in the Sokka-Stocked fridge and heard the girls giggling fiercely over low pitched yelling and loud yapping. She ran into the room only to stop and start giggling with the girls. Sokka had tripped down the stairs over Foo-Foo Cuddly-Poops and lay sprawled out at the bottom with his hands over his head as Foof attacked his shaggy hair.

Ty Lee clapped her hands with a laugh and Foof launched himself at her rolling over on his back so she could pet him again.

Katara had finally realized what Sokka was wearing-or rather not wearing. His chest was bare with little red welts over from hitting the stairs it and his basketball shorts were a little too big so they sagged at the waist. He grabbed a towel off the steps and rubbed his head vigorously, muttering things about ugly dogs and where they sat in his book.

Suki gave a reluctant giggle and Sokka stopped suddenly, his eyes widening slightly as they lit upon her.

Azula raised perfectly arched brows and observed the scene. Too bad Ty Lee wasn't Suki, and then she would no longer have any competition—not that she was still interested.

Sokka continued to gape openly at Suki while Katara palm-faced herself and thought, _Only my brother._

He didn't look away from Suki as he said. "Hey, Katara, I didn't think you'd take me serious about bringing home some cute friends."

Suki blushed with pleasure and replied lightly. "Well if I'd known Katara's dog was so cute I'd have come sooner."

Sokka flushed when he realized the other three girls were watching them and threw himself out of the room.

Suki groaned and put her face in her hands. "I'm sorry 'Tara."

To her relief, Katara looked amused and rather happy. "No problem. So what are we doing?"

"Well…" Suki and the other girls exchanged glances. "Uh, we haven't figured that out yet. We kinda hoped you would?" Suki said in question form, receiving no help from Ty Lee (still talking animatedly to Foof) and Azula (looking around the room in disdain).

Katara scowled and plopped onto the floor, the puppy launching itself from Ty Lee's lap and nipping her notepad playfully "Why should I? I'm not the one who hates Jet. You guys do."

"Yes, but it was your idea! Don't you want to make a plan?" Ty Lee chittered finally free of distraction. Azula cringed. Apparently the sound of Ty Lee's voice was enough to bring her haughty silence.

"No, I really don—" Katara stopped as she saw what Ty Lee pulled out of her Li & Lo bag. "What is that?"

"This?" Ty Lee sighed, brandishing a bottle of estrogen supplements. "Well, many of the girls on the team are more...endowed than I am. And you know the captain position is earned by popularity."

"So you want to be popular because you're bright, peppy, stupid, and have big boobs?" Azula sneered and brushed invisible dirt from her clothes. "Why not just pin a sign around your neck saying "I'm easy! Take me!""

Ty Lee's eyes watered and she sniffled, pulling a tissue out of her purse. Katara drew herself to kneeling and placed her puppy on the crying girl's lap, shooting Azula a look.

Azula scowled and groaned, rolling her eyes."Alright, I'm sorry. This whole thing with Jet is driving me insane!" Her features slouched and she actually leaned back into her chair, body falling from its rigid perfection. "Don't feel bad. Jet takes body enhancements daily, you know. He works out not even half as much and looks _so_ much better."

"I guess so." Ty Lee fretted, twisting her fingers in Foof's thick fur. "Sorry. These pills make me a bit weepy."

Suki snorted, drawing attention to her. "Sorry. I just thought that it's lucky for Jet that his drugs don't make him get all emotional. Talk about social murder." She said with a thoughtful look, waiting for the others to catch on.

Azula sat straight up with an evil grin. "Ah, thank you, Suki. We can really use this."

Katara shuddered at the look on the girl's face. "We'll figure it out tomorrow okay? I've still gotta go work my shift at The Jasmine Dragon."

"Hey! You were our waitress that night! Why didn't you warn us?" Ty Lee stood up, shouldering her purse and shooing Foof from her lap.

Katara shrugged, looking guilty. "Well, I couldn't warn you Ty Lee because you were his first date, Azula scares the other waitresses and I was trying to keep my job, showing my boss I could handle her."

"Yeah, well what about Suki?" Azula asked a pleased look on her face.

"I figured it out on my own. Someone left coral pink lip gloss on their napkin." Suki grinned against Azula's scowl. "C'mon. Let's let Katara get ready for work."

Azula and Ty Lee left with Katara needing to retrieve her puppy from the confines of the latter's purse. Suki left much more slowly, gathering the unopened water bottles and taking them into the kitchen for Katara.

"I don't think you'll find my brother in the fridge." Katara snickered, smirking as a faint blush tinted Suki's face.

"It was worth a try." Suki grinned sheepishly. "So, will you mention me?"

"Why don't you talk to him? I talk to him all the time! Anything having to do with me is old news!" Katara raised a brow, planting her hands on her hips. "Where's 'fearless-Suki'? 'I-Kill-You-With-This-Thumb-Suki', Huh?"

Suki shuffled on her feet, taking a fan from her pocket and snapping it opened then shut while looking flustered.

"How did you jump from wanting to date Jet to wanting to date _my_ brother?"

"He seems charismatic...and charming..." Suki said shyly.

"Oh yeah, he has a charismatic fall down stairs! Oh! He is also quite the charmer with his ponytail slicked back with dog drool." Katara's smile grew even wicked. "Did you decide this before or after you were ogling his shirtless—"

"See ya later Katara!" Suki called from the doorway, having started to edge around Katara as her grin changed.

Katara rolled her eyes and closed the door, moments later Sokka bounded up to her. "Who was that?" He asked breathlessly.

"Oh, just looking for a few babysitters. My poor Foo-Foo-Cuddly-Poops is always home alone." Katara said in a baby voice, rubbing the puppy of discussion emphatically, leaving his fur mussed and him dizzy. She planted a kiss on his nose before she snatched up her uniform and purse. "I'll talk to you later. Oh, you too, Sokka!" She patted her brother's now clothed chest and swept out the door.

"Katara!" Sokka whined at the closed door, crossing his arms in a pout and hearing a crinkle. Sticking to his shirt lay a sticky note in unfamiliar handwriting. It read 'Suki' and a number. Sokka grinned slowly. Katara was without a doubt the best sister ever!

.:.:.

Katara spent the next couple of days avoiding Ty Lee and Azula while also arguing with her guidance counselor to switch her into the AP Chemistry class. She and Suki became fast friends. It turned out Suki's entire family was military orientated and even being the youngest, Suki ended up being a leader of sorts within the siblings. Both of them having family at was gave them something to talk about and discussing the antics of Sokka, something to laugh about.

After a rather sneaky evasive maneuver, Katara heard the bell marking her as late. She found the room designated for AP and leaned hard against the door to open it. She stumbled slightly when it gave and smiled shyly at the staring room. She handed the slip from the counselors' office to Dr. Jee, a man she recognized from Iroh's tea drinking book club. He nodded and scanned the room before gesturing to the seat farthest back in the room next to a boy with his head in his arms.

She quickly strode back to the chair, avoiding eyes by ducking her head. She piled her books neatly in a corner and pulled out her pencil to wait for Jee's instructions. He wrote procedure on the board before releasing them for their labs.

Katara turned to her partner who still had his head tucked in his arms. "Let's get started." She said brightly and received no response. She frowned and went to go tap him when a hand shot out to grab hers. She jumped slightly but didn't pull away. The boy raised his head, staring blearily at Katara, uncomprehending in his sleepy fog.

"K'tara?" he yawned. For once his expression wasn't blank, simply confused. He realized he has her hand in his grip and let go, slowly clearing his expression. "What do you want?"

She eyed him warily, laying her hands out of reach. "I was transferred into this class. Jee told me to sit here."

Zuko slowly sat up, tensing his shoulders and arching his back, stretching in a very cat-like way. "Well," he sighed, running a hand through his unruly black hair. "I don't think you should be my partner."

"What? Why?" Katara asked, taken aback.

"For your own safety, of course." Zuko said casually while leaning away to haul books from his bag.

"What do you mean?" Katara asked, nervously watching as he straightened in his chair again.

Zuko motioned for her to lean closer and waited for her to comply before saying, "See that kid over there with the beanie?" he shifted his eyes and Katara followed his gaze to a rather thin boy wearing a highlighter-yellow jacket. "He was my partner before."

"And?" Katara gave him a blank look.

"Well, it's just that you have a lot of hair. Aang has no hair and I managed to catch his head on fire."

Katara remained silent for a moment before she started laughing. "Don't worry, I happen to be _very_ fire repellant." Still chortling, she left to gather supplies off the front table.

A faint smile started to appear on Zuko's face when a yawn split his face. He opened his eyes from his yawn induced squint to find Aang looking at him excitedly about a foot from his face. "Ugh." He grunted, scowling at the younger boy.

"Is that Katara?" Aang asked excitedly, pushing his drooping beanie further above his eyes.

"Depends."

"On what?"

"If you have sunglasses."

"Wow! Two jokes in two minutes, Zuko? Are you feeling well?" Katara teased gently, setting a tray filled with various solutions on the table. "But really kid. That's a _bright_ shirt you have."

"Thanks!" he positively beamed, missing Zuko roll his eyes and lean back in his chair. "Gyatso said you were nice! Hey!" he hit himself on the head, startling Katara ad earning another eye roll from Zuko. "Gyatso said Jeong-Jeong disappeared. You know that means you need to teach me the Bre—"

"Brevity of your life if you don't shut up." Zuko growled, suddenly pulling up from his chair and scanning the room with his fiery eyes as Katara grew exceedingly confused.

Aang's mouth formed an 'o' and he rubbed his beanie sheepishly. "I'll just go back to my table then." He shifted on his feet for a moment before booking it back to his seat.

"Well, I'm completely lost. Who's Gyatso?" Katara siphoned some solution into a funnel lined with filter, glancing at her notes.

"Skinny, old guy who plays Pai Sho with my uncle. He's Aang's legal guardian and the twit thinks that because the geezers are friends, we should be too." He eyes the solution nearing the edge of the paper intently, flicking his eyes to see Katara not even watching it. "You should watch what you're doing."

"Relax," Katara said, flipping a page in her notes, water never wavering from its path to the funnel. "It's just a sodium chloride solution. Anything that manages to get through we can boil away. Go ahead and dissolve the other solution. It should take a few minutes." She watched the last few drops fall into the funnel and looked up to see the last of the solvent dissolving.

Zuko shrugged away her querying gaze. "The water was warm."

"Oh, okay." She said, a puzzled look hidden behind the hair cascading over her shoulder. She knew the water had not been far above freezing a few minutes before.

.:.:.

Suddenly her backpack was snagged and started dragging her toward a door. She frowned and struggled before a female voice hissed, "Cut it out!"

Katara scowled and allowed them to drag her through the halls into a computer room with a projector out and a screen pulled down. Ty Lee and Azula had finally cornered her. Suki sat in the corner, arms crossed and a deep frown on her face.

Katara dropped her bag onto the ground and fell into a chair, arms crossed. "Yes?" she asked sulkily.

"You said you were going to help us." Azula said coldly, crossing her arms too.

"Yeah, like I was actually going to help you." Katara groaned, tugging on one of her hair loops.

"Why did you say anything before, then?" Azula snapped, gold eyes flashing.

"I wanted you two to stop bickering so I could study, and you to get out of my house so I could go to work." Katara said through her teeth, earning another glare from Azula.

"You will help us." Azula said coldly, not allowing Suki or Ty Lee to speak although Suki seemed to be closer to the door than she was a moment ago,

"Why?" Katara asked again, throwing a warning glare at Suki. _If you leave me alone with them…_Katara thought threateningly to the other girl, eyes conveying the message perfectly.

"You're middle ground. Suki levels me out and you make Azula talk to people—not yell as much I should say." Ty Lee said happily, picking up a remote and turning on the projector. "Now we will kill Jet Takutso."

"Well," Katara said, eyeing the two vengeful girls apprehensively. "I think the estrogen should be a last resort. If we were to get caught giving medication to an unknowing person, we could get in serious trouble."

"Oh, so it's 'we' now is it?" Azula said snidely, booting up a laptop she carried in her Li & Lo shoulder bag ignoring the look Katara threw her. "We'll need to set up schedules, rules and most importantly a contract that we can't tell anyone. If one of us goes down, the rest aren't going down with them. Got it?"

"But a contract?" Suki groaned. "I'm not in law studies 'til next term." She scanned the paper Azula handed her and nodded reluctantly to the terms. "So basically its Brawling Ring rules? Excellent."

Katara shook her head at the reference to the movie Sokka would watch on a loop whenever she left. _Ugh, those two are just too perfect for each other._

They sat in the room for the next fifteen minutes, bickering over meeting schedules that wouldn't conflict with class, work and most importantly _cheer practice_ before finally managing to find one that would work. The girls would casually slip notes in the halls and class to meet in the computer lab they currently were sitting in every day during the senior off period before lunch.

Katara finally stood and groaned unknowingly stretching exactly like Zuko did earlier. "So, are we done then? I really need to go to study hall and do my homework."

"You don't do it at night?" Ty Lee asked and Katara glanced over to see the girl folded into a position so that her head was rested on her hands and her legs were raised over her head. She heard a clicking noise and could only assume the girl was texting using her _toes_.

"No time, I have work." Katara said in a disbelieving tone that didn't go with what she said. "Are we allowed to go, Princess?" she asked Azula sarcastically.

Azula ignored her and shut down all her documents slowly, finally closing her laptop with a light snap. "I'll leave first so no one sees us together. The rest of you need to leave in at least two minute intervals and check before you leave." With that she left, leaving Katara wishing she had something to throw at the girl. Katara scowled and crossed the room, flopping into a chair directly by Suki.

"Ugh, thank goodness she's gone!" Ty Lee giggled and rolled off the desk to land gracefully on her hands. "Do you mind if I leave next?" she asked, neck bending at an astounding angle so she could look at Suki and Katara. The two nodded dumbly and Suki rubbed the back of her neck with empathy pains.

"Say, Ty Lee, you never told me what you did to make my leg collapse like that." Suki said, shaking her legs out in front of her.

Ty Lee's smile fell a bit. "Oh, I'm not supposed to talk about it." She said softly and drew herself to her feet to walk over to Suki. "Here, this should help with the pain." She quickly pinched different places in succession on Suki's body, almost too fast for the girls to see.

Suki released a breath she didn't know she held and her face relaxed slightly. "Wow! That's powerful stuff Ty Lee!" she grinned at the girl in pink. "Guess you're not just a cheerleader, huh?"

Ty Lee smiled faintly. "You're one of the first people to realize that. Thanks."

Suki's smile fell a bit. "No, thank you Ty Lee. You can do something extraordinary and it's sad no one can see past the fact that you're a cheerleader."

Ty Lee beamed and suddenly hugged Suki and Katara at the same time, catching both the girls completely off guard. Before they could react, Ty Lee pulled back and skipped out of the room.

"Well," Katara said simply and watched the girl leave.

"I agree." Suki said and pulled up the pant leg of her previously injured calf. "Look at that! The bruise is even fading!"

"That it is." Katara observed glancing at the clock above the door.

"Apparently Ty Lee isn't as superficial as she seems. After that incident at your place and today, I can't see her as a robot cheerleader."

"No," Katara agreed, thinking back to the fight when Suki and Ty Lee were going at it. "That and I think she'd be an amazing fighter with that jabbing thing she did to your leg."

"Dear, Kyoshi that hurt like no other. If only I could get her to teach my Warriors that move." Suki said dreamily, staring into space.

"I'm sorry, your what?" Katara asked sharply, looking at Suki intently.

"Oh-uh-I-um-well—look it's been two minutes!" Suki stuttered and fled from the room leaving Katara to her thoughts.

"Well that was…odd." Katara said aloud and leaned heavily against the back of her chair, a contemplative look on her face as she faced the chair Suki just vacated. She took off her necklace and peered at the old stone with the timeless symbols, rubbing a thumb over it in memory. "Nah, I probably misheard."

"So, not only do you plot to murder people, but you talk to yourself as well?" A slightly raspy voice drawled from behind her.

"Eep!" Katara squeaked and spun around on her chair to find Zuko standing in front of her. He had his arms crossed and his good eyebrow rose at the embarrassing noise she emitted. "What are you doing here?" she tried to ask casually, tucking her necklace imperceptibly into her three quarter sleeves.

"What am _I_ doing here?" Zuko asked in disbelief, and started to pace around her chair. "Oh, it's an interesting story really." He drawled, Katara's head whipping round to follow him. "Imagine my…surprise to see Azula—easily the cruelest and popular girl at school—approaches _you, _a girl who's been here for—four days now? See, I was wondering if you stepped on her heel or something earlier when lo and behold, Ty Lee—head cheerleader and mortal enemy of Azula—goes right along with her and they both are talking to you."

"And?" Katara asked, edgy and slightly offended, eyes trying not to leave Zuko's even through his predatory circuit around her chair. "Why is it such a problem that _you_ need to talk to me about it?"

"Nothing really." Zuko shrugged, glancing out the doors. "I always thought that the day Azula and Ty Lee started hanging out would mean someone died. I guess it's only a matter of time."

"Oh, Spirits." Katara said while shaking her head and setting loose a tumble of curls from her shoulders. "We're not killing anyone, Zuko."

"Actually, Katara, you are. You're all planning to kill Jet Takutso. It was all over that slide Azula had up." He waved an arm rather mockingly and suddenly stopped in front of her. He bent down to eye level, impeding close into Katara's space. For her part, Katara stood her ground (figuratively speaking of course) and held his gaze steadily.

"I want in."

Katara's eyes widened before her nose flared and they narrowed again. "For the last time, Zuko¸ we aren't killing anyone!" She hissed at him, standing abruptly and grabbing her bag making to leave the room when Zuko grabbed her wrist.

His eyes were bright and some of the fury was actually slipping through his mask. "You assumed that I wanted to _kill_ my _brother_?"

"Well, what else were we talking about?" Katara asked with sarcastic bite, struggling to yank her wrist away from his viselike grip. "Let me go."

"I just got done telling you that I was there for the entire meeting and you accuse me of wanting to kill my brother." Zuko growled, other arm snapping out to hold her other arm. Katara's eyes grew frosty when they met his eyes again, looking more like ice chips as the staring contest wore on.

Zuko leaned toward Katara, drawing her in simultaneously through the constraints he had on her with his golden eyes burning. "I am _not_ my father." He said quietly, almost searchingly staring into Katara's eyes. Almost as suddenly as he grabbed her, she found herself released but still inches from him. Her right arm rose seemingly of its own accord—

SLAP!

Zuko staggered back, left hand covering his scarred side with a pale hand, shock being the main expression on his face. His one opened eye didn't miss the red hand marks obstructing the mocha color of Katara's thin wrists as she ran away.

Slowly his hand fell from his face, revealing swelling around the tender scar tissue encasing his eye. He ignored the sting and his face fell, now under the veil of shame and remorse. He realized he was still staring out the door and dropped his gaze to the ground. His eyes caught on a faint shimmer by his foot and he kneeled to examine it. He picked the small stone off the ground, feeling the silk fall through his fingers and studied the play of light over the slightly worn symbol. He slowly stood, observing the school with a weary eye before looking back at the necklace, a tugging sensation playing on his heart. His resolve steadied and Zuko made his way to the Jasmine Dragon in a daze, thoughts wrapped around the necklace tied to his wrist under his charcoal colored shirt sleeve.

_I am not my father._

_I am not my father._

_I am not my father._

Unbeknownst to him¸ the words he had uttered with so much feeling echoed through the mind of another confused soul.

**E/N: Alright, I really liked the end of this chapter, something that I always hated in the first version I did so I completely scrapped over 1000 of the original and replaced it with over 3000. So, yeah it better be more awesome.**

**I also will be Titling the chapters by songs which I think are fitting. This chapter is inspired by the broken Zutara moment :)**

**Last thing reguarding characters. Anyone else think Suki is a total 4th wheel in that group? Katara is a bit dumb in this story because quite frankly, she's a moron in the series too. She's also constantly crying in the series which I can't stand so she'll be changing subtly (or not) through my story. Also, Toph is awesome and she only makes stories more awesome.**

**Still wondering about the plot surrounding bending? Next chapter should clear most!**

**Thanks for the support guys! Tell your fellow avatards! Love ya! ~BOB**


	4. This Too Shall Pass

**A/N: Sorry for the wait! I not only forgot to mention that last week was finals week which meant no update last Sunday, but I also meant to get this out yesterday! Enjoy! BTW Longest chapter by far!**

**This Too Shall Pass**

**OK GO**

* * *

Zuko slammed the door to his old Leechywagon Beetle and stuffed the keys into his pocket, donning the ceremonial tea apron as he made his way into work. He slunk stealthily into towards the backroom, sticking to the shadows as much as possible. He reached an arm to open the door and stopped at the calling of his name.

"Zuko! Zuko! Come sit with us my good boy!" Bumi was calling uproariously, waving his arms and starting to stand on the table before Piandao pulled him down to his chair. The older (insane) man simply grinned and swigged back the chocolate contents of his glass. "You have a little friend coming to see you in ten minutes!"

Zuko sighed and made way to sit with the old men, drawing his chair away yet still a respectful distance from the table. "Hello." He said shortly, pouring himself a cup of cinnamon tea and blowing the surface to steaming after glancing around and finding the dining room suspiciously empty.

"You may be wondering where all the customers are," Iroh said while sipping his ginseng tea and gazing at his nephew over the rim of his cup. He ignored Zuko's comment of 'not really' and spoke again. "It is National Tea Taboo Day. Most unhappy day of the year if you ask my opinion."

"Hmm, the government and its lies in action." Piandao said with a disgusted look and subtly placed a few drops of a sketchy looking liquid into Bumi's glass.

"Is something troubling your mind, young master Zuko?" Gyatso asked, steepling his hands and leaning his elbows on the table.

"Wrong? Me? Nothing's wrong." Zuko muttered, not making a very convincing argument and tried to turn the tables. "Why do you say that?"

"You do not have much taste for cinnamon tea. They only times you drink it are when you encounter problems with your bending or your character." Gyatso said knowingly, worn but bright grey eyes steady on Zuko's slouching form. "So which is it, young man?"

"Both." He said sulkily, rolling his cup to watch the amber liquid peak gently against the sides.

"Zuko! You didn't firebend in front of anyone did you?" Iroh scolded, gold eyes snapping on Zuko's guilty expression. "You did. Do you understand the impact this will have on us? How bad was it?"

"Spirits awful. Unacceptable. Shameful." Zuko spat out, cup trembling in his grip, the soft peaks becoming sloshing waves. "But she saw nothing."

"She?" Piandao injected, looking surprised. "So this is a problem involving a girl is it?"

Iroh's face turned slightly giddy until he saw the look of utmost self loathing in his nephew's expression. "What happened, Zuko?"

Zuko slammed his cup onto the table, standing and pacing with a hand running through his shaggy hair. "Ugh!" He groaned, adding his other hand after a moment and breathing deeply. "We were arguing and-and she just wasn't listening! She wouldn't just stop and listen to me! She kept looking at me with this disgusted, disappointed look on her face and started walking away!"

"What were you arguing about?" Gyatso asked solemnly, tracking Zuko's intense pacing with his eyes.

"She's in a league with these stupid girls. They want to socially murder my brother and she assumed that _I _assumed she meant _literally_! She kept accusing me of being my father and wanting to _kill_ my _brother_!" Zuko cried chest heaving and hands clenched in his hair.

"She knows who your father is?" Piandao asked, surprise still coloring his tone.

"Well," Zuko stopped pacing and glanced at the table. "No. She doesn't."

"Then who was accusing you of being your father, Nephew?"

"...I guess I was." Zuko said dejectedly and finally let his hands fall from his hair, leaving it sticking up in clumps. "But that's beside the point, Uncle." He paused again, staring at his hands in scrutiny. "Uncle, is it possible to firebend our blood? To burn without a flame?"

Iroh sighed and looked in his cup in disappointment. "Yes, it is and for that I take fault. I feared that if I told you, I wouldn't be able to answer the question that followed."

"That if I am able to bend fire through my blood, why is my blood still susceptible to fire outside of my skin?" Zuko asked slowly, unconsciously hiding his scar from view of the group.

"That is something you'll find out for your own someday and maybe even change." Iroh said vaguely and heated his cup a bright cherry red before setting in on his saucer. "Now, why the question?"

"She was going to leave with the assumption I wanted to kill my brother. So I just took her wrists for a moment. But it was obviously enough." Zuko rubbed something in his shirtsleeve with his other hand, a lost expression on his face. "I guess she left with that and more." He said sadly, eyes flicking to his uncle for guidance.

"How badly did you burn her?" Piandao asked, a slightly disturbed look gathering on his face, reliving the day he and the two firebenders clearly remembered.

"Well...her skin turned pink from what I saw." Zuko said in self disgust and fought the need to smash his head repeatedly against the wall in attempt to rid himself of the memory. "How could I do that to someone? What could have happened for me to suddenly start a new type of bending with no knowledge beforehand?"

"Often times, it is not _what_ someone does that affects us most, but _who_ someone is that changes us." Gyatso said wisely, closing an eye in a slow wink before closing the other.

"Zuko has a girlfriend!" Bumi suddenly shrieked, startling the group and fell face first into the table, loud snores vibrating the playing chips.

"Who is she, Nephew?" Iroh asked curiously, and grinned as his boy turned a pink color and ran, mumbling excuses until he got into the tea room.

"Hmm." He heard Piandao mutter and turned to face the man staring at a stopper full of yellow liquid. "Perhaps I added too much."

"You did not, my friend." Gyatso chuckled and opened his eyes, pulling a vial out of his sleeve. "_We_ added too much." He moved his arm in a gesture and a napkin fluttered free of its holder to rest under the sleeping man's mouth.

.:.:.

Katara did not go back to her classes. In fact, she didn't stay in the school for longer than it took for her to run out of one of the side doors. She found herself running all the way back to her apartment, racing across streets and getting snagged by bushes creeping onto the sidewalk. Once inside, she slammed the door shut and heaved dry sobs against her will. "Hey Foof." She said to the puppy in the kennel, voice thick with unshed tears. She slowly walked over and unhooked his cage lock, hissing as the burns on her wrists scraped against the bars. Foof jumped out in an excited leap, racing circles around Katara, to the door, and back.

She gave a watery chuckle and hooked his leash up, taking him outside to do his business. Once she reentered the house, the leash came off and the puppy ran laps around the apartment. Katara smiled tiredly and took the trek up the stairs to retrieve her work uniform, having decided to go into work a few hours early. Homework in tow, she guiltily put Foof back into his cage and headed for the bus to work. She sat at the bus stop, staring into space and thinking of the events that occurred half an hour ago.

_How could I have been so wrong,_ Katara thought, recalling his indifferent but still personable—if you could call it that—attitude when she first met him. Sure he maintained a cold exterior, but there was sure to be more to him. _Yeah, _she thought harshly, _he's a monster._

The bus pulled to a stop in front of her bench and she went through the motions for getting to work, determined not to think anymore. She buried her head in her World History Book for the journey and entered the Jasmine Dragon with her head still filled with political treaties and old men from wars past. Finally, she sighed and tucked her essay back in her book then placed it under the counter which held her belongings though the work night. She exited the room to see Iroh waving her over to the Pai Sho table. "Hello Masters Iroh, Gyatso, Piandao, and Bumi." She greeted the four men with a bow as she approached the table, seeing the fourth man sleeping with his head on an embroidered napkin.

"Greetings Miss Katara." Gyatso said serenely. "Please take a seat."

"That is if you don't mind sharing a cup of tea with some old me." Piandao said with a grin, tugging at his neatly trimmed beard.

Katara murmured a 'thank you' and slid into the chair between Gyatso and Iroh, pouring herself a cup of Jasmine Tea.

"Ah, the pot has gone cold. " Iroh observed the lack of steam as Katara's cup filled. "Would you like me to warm it?" he asked, extending  
his hand for the cup.

"No thank you." She said absently, folding her hands around her cup and staring into its depths. "I prefer my tea cold."

"Understandable." Iroh said gently, lacing his fingers and resting them on his belly.

"Where are your manners?" Gyatso chided and gestured to his right. "This is Toph Bei Fong, a friend of Iroh's nephew."

Katara started and suddenly noticed the smaller girl with her hands braced upon the great stone table. "I'm sorry. I didn't see you there." She said sweetly.

"Yup, know the feeling, Sweetness." Toph replied and flicked a tile, grunting in satisfaction as Piandao slapped a hand to his forehead.

Katara gave her an odd look and resumed looking at her tea.

"Something is weighing upon your mind. Why not enlighten a few old men?" Gyatso asked, placing finger-tip to finger-tip and leaning forward on his elbows. "We have been known to give good advice."

"It's nothing really. I just got in a fight and I don't really understand why. It's just—" She broke off, jerking her head suddenly and almost tipping her cup, tea sloshing up against the sides. "I trust people too easily, I think. That or I'm not good at reading him."

"Boy troubles?" Iroh asked, smiling when her confused gaze lit upon him. "I believe your mind said 'them' and your heart said 'him'"

Katara blushed and hastily took a drink of her tea, reaching up to grasp her necklace for comfort. Her fingers closed over nothing and she gasped, patting down her sleeves and pockets to no avail. Fat tears dripped down her face and the old men gave her concerned looks (minus Piandao who was muttering and staring at the Pai Sho board). "My mother's necklace. I lost it." She cried burying her face in her arms, voice coming out muffled.

"Was it because of this fight?" Iroh asked, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"No…" She said slowly, voice still thick. "I was looking at it before and when the fight started, I put it in my shirtsleeve so I wouldn't lose it. Fat amount of good that did me."

"Would you like us to help you look for it? I know Toph, for one, is excellent at seeing what others can't seem to see." Iroh asked with a grin as Toph's head shot up, blind eyes uncannily accurate.

"Don't go volunteering me for anything, Pops." Toph growled, moving another tile with a flick of her wrist.

"That's okay. I don't want to burden anyone else with it. It's just that," Katara sat up, rubbing her eyes with her shirt sleeve. "It's been in my family for five millennia and I'm the first one to lose it."

"Ugh, don't go feeling sorry for yourself. That thing had to have been lost a few times in five thousand years. Don't feel special, Sweetness, those things come back like dogs anyways. Always at the worst times but happen for the best." Toph said gruffly, earning surprised looks from everyone in the room and another glare from Piandao who was losing exponentially.

"I guess you're right." Katara said slowly, tears stopping.

Toph scoffed, hitting Piandao with another devastating blow. "Of course I'm right."

Katara shook her head at the younger girl, not noticing in the dim dining room light the cloudy fog covering the girl's eyes.

"Hmm..." Iroh stroked his beard before standing and extending his hand to Katara. "Well, my dear, we need to go collect a few teas from the back room. I'm afraid I am not near as nimble as my years have caught up with me."

"Sure." Katara smiled gently, getting to her feet, bowing to the two conscious elder men and allowed her hand to be tucked in Iroh's elbow. "So what kind of new tea did you get?"

"One called the 'Tea of Understanding' and one 'Tea of Forgiveness.' Crates of course." Iroh said gently, turning the corner with Katara to approach the door to the tea room.

"Is that supposed to be ironic?" Katara asked drily, eyeing the old man.

"No it is not." He chuckled and opened the door bowing Katara to enter before him.

She entered the room, still watching Iroh suspiciously, and headed for the wall covered with shelves housing a variety of tea.

"It is meant to be a lesson."

Katara turned around confused and found the giant metal door closed. "Hey." She said and walked over to the door, pulling on the handle to no avail. "Iroh!" She kicked the door. "You accidently locked me in!" She yanked on the door again before pressing her ear to the cold metal, listening to see if Iroh was still there.

"Uncle?" A raspy voice called and Katara stiffened against the door, eyes slowly moving to the source.

Someone rounded a counter stacked high with boxes, head down and focused on the dish towel he was tying on the handle of a tea pot. The young man glanced up at Katara, dropping the porcelain kettle shattering sounds and tea briefly floating in the air. He jumped at the noise bent to pick the china, slipping in his sneakers and falling to his knees.

Katara recovered from her surprise enough to yelp, "Zuko!" Then her eyes narrowed in anger, staring down into his weary eyes.

.:.:.

"Pops wants me to do _what_?" A fierce voice came from a girl just over five foot, arms crossed and eyes unseeing. "I usually don't lock people in metal and earthen tombs unless I've killed them."

"You haven't killed anyone before, Master Toph." Piandao chuckled, balancing a knife on point at the end of his smallest finger.

"Psh, technicalities. What I mean is what do I get out of this?"

"The knowledge that you have given two lost souls the opportunity to forgive and reconcile." Gyatso sent a breeze to ruffle the girl's bangs, tickling her nose with the fine black strands.

Toph snorted, wiping her nose with the back of her sleeve with a violent motion. "Pah," she crossed her arms again and tapped a foot impatiently. "Still not buyin' in."

"How about experiencing the vindictive pleasure of locking two teens who hate each other in a twelve by ten room? Particularly when the room is filled with boiling water and both teens are known to be benders." Piandao suggested, flipping his knife to the other hand.

"I'm on it." Toph gave an evil grin. "Oh, and I win, Bilbo." She pounded the Pai Sho table with a fist, a small tile with a hammer engraving flipping in an arc to the Emperor's Roost. Toph laughed and snatched Piandao's knife before sauntering to the door Iroh was leaning against.

"Bilbo?" Piandao asked bewildered, staring down at the board and scratching his head.

"I may have let it slip your sword turns blue when fire contacts the surface."

Piandao still looked confused before he glimpsed a book sitting on the counter. "You read her The Pygmy?"

"No, Bumi did." The waiflike old man gestured to the sleeping man mentioned, wincing at the thud the book made coming into contact the his head.

"Wait. Bumi can't read."

.:.:.

A screeching grate on the metal door behind Katara sent her reeling forward a few feet, covering her ears with a cry. Zuko merely winced and remained on the floor, tea soaking the knees of his jeans.

"What is that?" Katara asked a moment or two after the screech stopped.

"My uncle and his minions locking us in." Zuko said quietly, shifting his legs into a crouch and watching Katara warily.

"Did I ask you?" She snapped, throwing a glare his way and yanking on the door once more.

"There's only one person who can undo that door." Zuko muttered and started picking up the china, setting the pieces in his apron.

"What do you mean 'undo'?" Katara asked sharply, crossing her arms after giving up on the door.

Zuko's eyes scrunched a little and he said nothing. "You said undo, not unlock. What happened to the door?" No answer. She groaned, pulling a page out of her notepad and writing a few choice words before attempting to slide it under the door.

The paper simply curled back up the door and upon investigation of the edges, she found them to seamlessly blend into the door frame. She frowned and bent miniscule amounts of water along the edges, finding no give to the other side.

"I told you we're locked in." Zuko sighed and stood, dumping the contents of his apron into a trashcan by the freezer door.

"I never asked you. Are you hard of hearing as well as social skills?" Katara sneered and propped a hip against the door.

Zuko stiffened and glared at the blue eyed girl. "I have social skills."

"If that's what you call grabbing people's wrists and hissing in their faces." Katara said sarcastically and eyed the tawny eyed boy. "What are you doing here?"

"I work here. Wh—"

"Well, duh. You're practically Iroh's son. I meant what are you doing here today? It's National Tea Taboo Day."

Zuko turned and ran a hand through his hair, seemingly sheepish, or disgruntled-Katara couldn't see his eyes. "I guess I forgot what day it was."

"Somehow that doesn't surprise me." Katara bit at him, not relaxing her defensive position.

"Yeah, well why are _you_ here?" Zuko jabbed, crossing his arms in a defensive move as well.

Katara ignored him, instead choosing to survey the room. Several gas burning stoves had kettles and pots mounted over their flames, throwing scents of cinnamon, jasmine, and other pungent scents into the air. Katara removed herself from the door and walked over to the thermometer on the wall opposite her, reading the temperature in disbelief. "It's a good thing you have no feelings because it's well over a hundred degrees in here." Katara had a faint idea of why she was being so nasty but chose to try and ignore the issue.

"I guess I deserve that." Zuko sighed, slouching from his defensive position and tugging at his right shirtsleeve. He suddenly took a deep breath and walked over to her "I want to talk to you about what happened earlier."

Katara glared at him, color rising to her cheeks. "I know what happened earlier. You had a hissy fit and took it out on me because-"

"Don't be dense, K'tara." Zuko growled and stalked over to shut off the stoves noticing how the temperature in the room suddenly jumped with the flames under the tea.

"It's Kuh-tara." She snapped, wiping a hand over her sweating brow.

"It's a mouthful." He retorted, earning another glare. "Look will you just let me explain?" He asked, exasperated with her unwillingness to cooperate.

"Why is it at school you try to show no emotion," Katara started toward him, a hand on her hip and the other jabbing at him accusingly. "But as soon as I talk to you alone, it's all angry expressions and directed at me?"

"Don't feel special, it's just because you're aggravating!"

"I'm aggravating?" Katara shrieked, prodding the poor teen in the chest. "Me?"

"It's not so much you, but your voice!" Zuko spat and immediately palm-faced, saving Katara the trouble. "I shouldn't have said that." He muttered and turned quickly away from her, rubbing his temples.

Katara fumed, swiping at her forehead again, tempted just to bend the sweat away when she spotted a metal door with frost covering a tiny window. She stomped over to the door, yanking on the locking mechanism until it opened with a groan and gust of freezing air.

"What are you doing?" Zuko scowled, striding to stand next to the livid girl.

"Inventory." Katara walked into the small room and attempted to slam the door in Zuko's face but he slipped in right behind her. He tugged on the string dangling in the center of the room, a faint yellow light bulb illuminating rows of cold weather herbs and spices. "Why did you have to follow me?"

"Do you know how to get out?" Zuko asked her.

"How else do you leave a room? The door handle." Katara proceeded to search the door to no avail. "You better know how to get out of here." She grumbled and threw herself onto the ground in front of the door.

"I do, only if you listen to what I have to say." Zuko said, standing in front of her with an unsure expression on his face. "First I would like to apologize for my actions. I had no right to touch you and for that I am truly sorry." Zuko held Katara's gaze and she gave the barest of grudging nods, seeing the sincerity in his eyes.

"You have no idea what you implied when you thought I actually wanted to kill my brother. To suggest such a thing would be to suggest I am my father. And to suggest that...is a major blow to my honor."

"Well you know what they say. There is no honor among thieves, so don't worry about it." Katara threw at him, breaking eye contact and turned her head away.

"Now I'm a thief?" Zuko asked angrily, eyes flashing.

"After our little 'argument'," Katara hissed, drawing claw like quotations around the word. "My mother's necklace disappeared."

"And you think I took it?" Zuko asked in disbelief.

"Maybe, maybe not." Katara looked up at him steadily. "You have no idea what this necklace means to us."

"Well then talk to your mother and tell her you lost it!" Zuko snapped, throwing his arms in the air.

"Oh that'll go great. 'Hey Mom, I lost your necklace that's been passed down for fifty centuries. By the way, since you're dead you can't do anything about it, sorry!'" Her voice escalated to the point of almost yelling but broke upon the last word, throat tightening with unshed tears.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know." Zuko said softly, crouching down in front of her fragile looking form. "But that's something we have in common."

Katara scoffed, scrubbing an eye with a shirtsleeve. "Your mother was brutally murdered in your home in front of your eyes while the rest of your life burned in front of you? I highly doubt that."

Zuko was silent, rubbing a hand over his tired eyes. "Actually...that's exactly what happened to me." His hand stilled suddenly and he looked at Katara with bright eyes."Your father's name is Hakoda right?"

"...Yes." Katara looked at his odd expression and wiped her eyes again, just in case. They were silent a moment before Katara said hesitantly, "I recognize your apology, Zuko. I'm just not sure yet if I accept."

"Thank you." Zuko murmured, and hesitantly sat down in front of her, breath coming out in a thicker fog from him than that of the girl across from him.

"So...I understand now that you don't want to actually kill Jet. So why do you want to commit social homicide?" Katara watched as Zuko sighed and leaned forward onto his hands, the cold not seeming to affect him.

"I, of all people, see how much of an imbecile my brother is. Agni knows I was the first to notice it and try to put a stop to it." He ran a ragged hand through his hair, glancing at Katara as he did so. "My mother was murdered by the same men who went after your mother."

Katara looked surprised and a little confused while a sympathetic light entered her eyes not felt in her earlier anger. "How do you know they're the same men?"

"The government keeps tabs on all of us, watching us for abnormalities and coming after us if we are one. Well, they're not really after us, but they try to keep us under their control." Zuko grimaced, slapping a hand to his forehead. "Well I sound schizophrenic. Maybe I should explain."

Katara smiled finding this fumbling Zuko to be more to her liking than the cold distant Zuko.

"Umm, so about five thousand years ago, there was a huge war between all the nations and the nations fell under the tyranist rule of the Phoenix King. He had this group of earthbenders called the Dai Li and they somehow had the power to brainwash people. Over the centuries, they managed to obliterate the memory of bending from all but the Phoenix King's line and a core group of earthbenders. By this time, everyone thought that the airbending race had been 'eradicated'" Zuko shuddered at the word.

"Then how do you know this?" Katara asked suspiciously, none of this new to her but she didn't show it.

Zuko looked thoughtful for a moment, searching for the wording he wanted."Well, there was always the Avatar and the White Lotus, a secret society who supported the Avatar in retaining balance in the world. See the brainwashing only works if the person has an inkling of doubt in the truth. The Avatar knew the truth from his past lives and White Lotus members were raised from birth to follow the Avatar's teachings." Zuko fiddled with the ties to his apron, not enjoying the cold of the freezer but admitting it a relief from the stifling heat. Now it was a stifling cold.

"Then what happened to bending? It doesn't exist today so what is the point of the Dai Li?" Katara looked at home among the shelves of frozen pastries and ice, blue eyes glinting in the faint lights.

"Bending still exists today." Zuko said simply, looking up and holding Katara's gaze. "The Dai Li have so much control over the world; they can see any disturbances in the world they have created. They've decided what is taught, what is discovered, who lives and who dies."

"Well that doesn't sound like a conspiracy theory at all." Katara said sarcastically, a lopsided grin covering her face.

"I bet you think I'm crazy." Zuko frowned, tying a harsh knot in one of the strings of his apron.

"I'm considering it. I mean, you try not to show your emotions, when you do it's terrifying and you linked your brother's popularity to a government conspiracy."

Zuko looked at her thoughtfully, a small smile coming to his face. "True, I never told you why Jet was involved." He took a deep breath and had a faraway look upon him. "When my mother was murdered, I had a sister, a year younger than I, who was never found in the fire. Father didn't want it to get out that he lost a child so he adopted one the same age; Jet. By that time, Jet was already ten and he knew O-uh Father wasn't his biological parent. So Father had him brainwashed into thinking the two were father and son. Jet was always feeling...inadequate compared to me in Father's eyes so he overcompensated."

"He overcompensated?" Katara asked dryly, finding a new hobby in making Zuko react in different ways.

"Yes, because..." Zuko trailed off and looked hard at her and seemed to overcome internal conflict. "Of this." He held a hand out hesitantly and a moment later gentle flames covered his palm to finger tips.

Katara's brows rose and her eyes widened, fixed upon the dancing fire in the young man's hand. "That would do it." Zuko extinguished it in surprise at her nonchalant voice, staring at her with an inscrutable expression. "Big deal. You're a firebender."

"And you're not surprised?"

"Firebenders killed my mother." Katara said coldly and she sighed. Silence lay heavy on the two of them and she wrapped her arms around her knees, setting her head on top. "Someone overheard us talking about bending as we were walking home. It was Long Feng." She spat, clenching her fists until her knuckles turned white.

"I know Long Feng. He's only a step under the Leader." Zuko said softly, moving cautiously to sit next to her against the door.

"She told the Dai Li she was a waterbender." Katara said sadly. "Mom told them that Sokka and I weren't old enough to realize she was really bending, so they let us live. She told them Dad had no clue that she could bend so they brainwashed him just in case. He of course knows the truth, so he pretended to be corrupted, so he got to live too. But they...killed my mother for what she said." Katara leaned her head back against the door, eyes closed and a tear streaming down her face.

Zuko hesitated and extended an arm, resting his hand lightly over one of her freezing hands. Katara opened her eyes in surprise and smiled in thanks closing her eyes again in pain. She turned her hand over, grasping his larger pale hand in her smaller dark one.

"We were in her room. The two of us. Just...talking." She said shakily. "Then suddenly she shoved me under her bed and told me to keep quiet. Some men came in and started talking to her. I was too young to understand what they meant but I remember all too clearly what happened next." Katara shuddered, more tears streaming down her face and a faintly terrified look crept over her features. Zuko warmed his hand with bending and squeezed hers on reassurance.

"Her feet...they left the ground for a while...she was making these noises and I heard nothing from the men in the room. Suddenly...they dropped her...her throat was...burned out...punishment to her spirit for speaking the truth." Katara opened her streaming eyes and turned to meet Zuko's worried gaze. "But she was lying. She was lying the entire time."

"What do you mean?" Zuko asked right brow narrowing in confusion.

"My mother was never a waterbender." Never breaking eye contact, Katara moved her free hand gracefully, tear drops flying from her face to collect with moisture she drew from the air. The two looked toward the fist sized ball of glistening liquid, watching as it solidified into ice before dropping to the ground and shattering.

"I guess it would be too obvious to say that you're a waterbender." Zuko said lightly.

"Was that an attempt at humor?" Katara smiled looking at the golden eyed boy again. "That's—what—three times in one day? Must be a record."

Zuko laughed and stood up, extending pulling Katara up and stopped short, laughter dying in his throat.

"What?" Katara asked brows furrowed. Zuko gently pulled back one of her shirtsleeves, then the other and held her wrists up to the light. "Oh!" She said and pulled her hands away, covering them with water as she drew moisture from the air. Her coated arms glowed softly for a few seconds before the form faded and Katara dispersed it into the air again, leaving her arms completely unblemished.

"Wow," Zuko said softly, looking down at her hands then up into her eyes. "That was amazing."

"Thank you." Katara smile up and him and after a moment she turned sheepish. "And thanks for making me listen."

"Yeah, well, it's not that hard to get out of here." Zuko grinned and moved past Katara, pressing a foot into an indentation by the door. The door swung open with a gust of cold air and the two exited the freezer into the stifling room. "Guess that explains why you can't take the heat very well."

Katara raised her brows. "Guess that explains why you're so hotheaded."

"Ooh, nice comeback." Zuko grinned, at her comment of 'shut up' and strode over to the sealed door, pounding on it three times. "Hey! I'm still alive!"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Keep your pants on, Sparky." They heard a voice yell through the thick metal before the screeching resumed again. The door shot open, revealing Toph with her arms crossed and an annoyed look on her face. "Took you long enough. You kiss 'n' make up?"

Zuko ruffled her hair with a grin and went to leave the room when his hand was snagged.

Katara smiled and tucked a hair loopy behind her ear before letting. "Zuko...Apology accepted."

.:.:.

**E/N. Both happy and unhappy with this chapter. Zuko is OC at the end, and Katara is a crybaby but that's her character in the series too. The Pygmy is a reference to The Hobbit and I found out in the thesaurus that 'Bilbo' is another word for 'sword' wierd.**

**looking for 4 reviews for Christmas! thanks for reading!**

**BOB**


	5. Feeling Good

**A/N: Umm, first off you guys ROCK! I asked for 4 reviews and got 8! Whoop! Happy Hollidays!**

**Feeling Good**

Katara yawned widely as she blindly made her way to school, ice crunching under her boots like glass. Her gait was a smooth glide, the ice seeming to glisten as her feet left the pavement. Normally, on a morning like this, she would be that her favorite season was coming.

But now she was tired, stressed and aching due to her late night at the Jasmine Dragon. She and Zuko (Toph by force) had decided to change one of the back rooms into a practicing arena, seeing as the Jasmine Dragon was one of the only places in the world not under the watch of the Dai Li. Toph had dug into the ground, avoiding electrical wiring and water lines when she sensed them. Katara managed to tap into a natural water flow some miles away, pooling it into a swimming pool sized pond as well as letting it escape from a tunnel Toph built from the building. For the most part Zuko moved boxes of tea from the back rooms, finding a hundreds of bags of play sand from when Iroh wanted to make a play ground. They emptied the bags into a corner of the practice arena, figuring they could move it to where falling would most likely occur.

Zuko managed to grab Toph and dump her into the pit of sand, laughing as she tried to shoot clods of sand at him, complaining that he was 'too fuzzy'. Needless to say, it had to be explained to Katara that Toph was blind and could 'see' though her earthbending. Later, Zuko kiddingly blasted an offending heap of sand, turning it to fragile structures of glass Iroh called fulgurites.

The crew had decided to take a break for a while, playing Pai Sho with the old men until Iroh suddenly appeared with bottles of glaze in earthy tones. Toph broke slates of rock into organic shapes which fit together like puzzle pieces and fused them into the trench she dug tracing the walls of all the dining rooms in the Jasmine Dragon. She and Katara had fun randomly picking glazes to bend onto the slates, Zuko and Iroh following them and firing the glazes until they shone all metallic colors. Once the process was complete, Toph created a small opening to bring water flowing through their work. The old men applauded from their table at the finished product and tried to explain to Toph what it looked like. She merely appeared indifferent and challenged Piandao to a rematch at Pai Sho. By this point, Iroh stated the late hour and dropped Katara and Toph off at their respected homes, thanking them for the makeover to his restaurant.

Katara felt proud of what she had accomplished the previous night, but the events following seemed to cover that up. When she got home, well after midnight, Sokka had left a sticky note saying that The Mechanic had another harebrained idea, meaning that he came home, grabbed a set of clothes and left.

That also meant that Foof hadn't been outside in almost twelve hours. Katara found the poor puppy huddled in a corner of his kennel, covered nose to tail in shreds of newspaper and—excrement. She almost cried when the poor thing climbed out of his kennel, tail between his legs in shame but had managed to bend a globe around the dog when he went to shake.

It took her just minutes to get him upstairs and bathed using her water-dog-shampoo-bending to wash and dry him. It took minutes more to take his kennel outside and blast it with a hose supercharged by waterbending. She found her way upstairs into her room and cuddled her now Dragon Cherry smelling puppy. She had also written Sokka a loving note, suggesting he buy a dog flap or he would find something warm and squishy on his bed tomorrow night.

Sleep did not come very quickly to her as the moon was almost full, filling her spirit with energy and her head with thoughts. One such thought to consider was her new found—friendship?—with Zuko. Her thoughts wound around each other so tightly she was unable to find heads from tail of them.

Then to top it off, after less than four hours of sleep, she discovered he had left her World History book at the Jasmine Dragon with her homework in it. Now, she groaned, bending a chunk of ice into the street with a subtle kick, shoving her hands into her sweatshirt while stepping onto the sidewalk.

A horn blared behind Katara and she glared at a very awake Zuko who smirked, yanking his car into a parking spot. She suddenly realized she was in front of the school. She shook her head, tossing chocolate colored curls and stopped to wait for him. She yawned again, covering her mouth in the most ladylike fashion possible.

Katara, while being half asleep and dead on her feet, did not know, nor care what car Zuko drove.

"Hey." He said, seeing her try to cover her yawn as he approached with his hands in his pockets.

"Hey, yourself." She growled, glaring at him as he raised a brow which she had gathered to take as a laugh in public.

"Touchy." He slung hair out of his eyes with an easy grace, unaware of the approving look a darkly dressed girl shot him.

She stuck her tongue out of the side of her mouth before rolling her eyes. "I'm not a morning person, which makes it hard when you get less than four hours of sleep. That, plus I left my history book at work; my puppy was sick all over himself as well as his cage and you can guess what is due today."

Zuko frowned at Katara and held open one of the main doors for her. "Well, if it makes you feel better I had to go to work at five this morning and I just got out. Uncle always has more people coming every morning to the Jasmine Dragon."

Katara glowered at him and muttered her thanks of his courtesy before saying,"Yeah, but you said yourself you were a morning person."

"Not after three hours of sleep." Zuko said coolly, nodding his head at her gratitude.

"Ugh, sorry." Katara rubbed her forehead as they walked through the halls. "I really just want to go to sleep right now." She dragged a hand down her face, making a comical face that would do Sokka proud before giggling.

"Highly attractive." Zuko's eyes brightened with mirth but only showed as a smirk on his face stopping when Katara stopped in front of some teal lockers.

Katara talked as she dialed the code into her locker about how much she loved her job at the Jasmine Dragon, but mostly about the old men who were there day after day. She was silent in thought for a moment as she pulled out her calculus book, reminded of her history book still at her work.

"You know we have the same history class. You can use my book." Zuko leaned against a locker by hers, leveling a cold look at the guy trying access the thing.

Katara looked skeptical. "You know you can look like a juvenile delinquent without acting like one right?" She said and pushed him off the locker, only moved him a quarter inch before he relented. "Thank you but, I'll figure something out." The bell rang before Zuko could answer so she gave a sarcastic wave goodbye before entering the flood of students, almost instantly finding Suki.

"Hey!" she shouted over it and pulled Suki's arm through the sea of students. Someone shoved from behind and Katara and Suki lurched into the backs of a few seniors. A short girl with camouflage shorts, a green headband and a camisole burst from behind them, laughing loudly and knocking knuckles with a few guys they knew were on the wrestling team. It took Katara a moment to realize that the ruggedly dressed girl was in fact Toph, the delicate looking earthbender she had worked with the night before. A moment later she disappeared from view and Katara made a mental note to look for the girl later.

Katara shrugged at Suki before they continued shoving their way into their class. The teacher was a total procrastinator and the students knew it. Today he had to catch up on the online shopping for the twenty one year anniversary of his marriage so there was a high probability that the period was going to be an independent work session. Minutes later, they were sitting in desks facing each other and their papers passed out, pencils in hand. The girls had worked out a system, each picking the hardest problem they struggled with personally before moving onto the easy ones.

"So," Suki drawled, watching Katara carefully. "Who was the mysterious man leaning against your locker earlier?"

Katara looked up from her work, mind still wrapped around numbers and identities. "Huh?"

"Who's your mystery man?"

"My—" Suddenly it clicked and Katara set down her pencil with a sharp movement. "Oh no, no, no. That's just Zuko. He's my chemistry partner and his uncle is my boss. I forgot my history book at work and he offered to share his."

Suki raised her brows with a grin. "Oh really? Sure you didn't—"

"Suki! Why would I leave my two-hundred point paper at work inside my book?" Katara snapped and glared as Suki's grin grew bigger.

"Ooh, defensive. You know I would have shared but you've found a much more interesting solution. For that I applaud you."

"I was gonna ask you later but Zuko offered first."

"Relax," Suki drawled, flicking her eraser in the air. "I swear you and your brother are so fun to tease."

"Speaking of Sokka, someone wants to take you to the Winter Formal in a month." Seeing Suki's disbelieving look Katara nodded. "Yeah, I thought he would never plan that far either but he wants to see if you would consider it."

"Yeah, I'll go. Just don't tell him and let him sweat for a while."

"You're an evil girlfriend."

"Yeah, yeah, I know." Suki eyed her calculations and Katara with the same look. "Any idea who's taking you?"

"None." Katara sighed, focusing on a problem with half her attention. "I've been here less than two weeks. Anyone worth taking has no interest."

"How about Zuko? Is he interesting?" Suki smirked, writing a solution on her paper without even looking.

"Oh, you have no idea how interesting he is." Katara said darkly, erasing a failed solution with relish.

"Hmm," Suki said thoughtfully. "Fire away."

"That's one way of putting it." Katara muttered sarcastically under her breath. "It's not my place to say." She said louder.

"Well, if it makes you feel better, you're first one I've heard of Zuko opening up to, let alone talk to."

It was Katara's turn to look thoughtful before she thanked Suki and the two returned to their schoolwork, only talking to exchange answers for the rest of class.

"I'll see you later, Kat." Suki said after the bell dismissed them. "I gotta put some stuff in my gym locker. See ya in history."

Katara nodded and took her things to her locker, seeing a girl decked out in rebellious camouflage. "Hey, Toph." She called out, running lightly to the younger girl.

"How's it going, Sweetness? Parentals finally let me go to public school." Toph stopped talking abruptly, a deep frown set in her face. "Turns out its pretty hard to pretend I'm a blind and helpless."

"Hmm." Katara agreed then grinned. "Why not get a stick and blindly hit people upside the head?"

"I like how you think." The girl grinned straight through Katara, her sea foam eyes not dilating in the sunlight streaming in through the windows. "You sittin' with Sparky for lunch?"

Katara blinked. "No actually. I haven't been to lunch yet this year. I usually just go to the library and study."

"Eh," Toph waved a hand through the air flippantly. "Books don't really do it for me. C'mon. We're sitting with Hotpants for lunch."

Katara was silent for a moment while they walked toward the lunchroom. "Hotpants?" She asked.

Toph smirked and replied. "I'll tell you when he's in hearing range."

Katara reached over and ruffled the younger girl's hair as she'd seen Zuko do the night before. A moment later she stumbled so badly on a tile that she almost fell. "Hey!" She cried out, looker-ons laughing at her.

"Don't touch the hair." Toph said simply, stopping as they reached the threshold of what they called the cafeteria.

"Whoa." Katara observed the mass of hunger driven students with slight intimidation, watching as they pushed at and past each other to get their food. "We're gonna find Zuko in this?"

"Just did." Toph stated and began to plow through the food deprived masses, Katara scrambling to catch up while tossing apologies over her shoulders. "So, ten years ago, Sparky moved in with Pops into my neighborhood—a euphemism for 'prison with flowers' in my opinion—and he was an angry son of a Leechybun, so I'm told. My parents didn't want anyone to know they had a four year old blind daughter, so we weren't introduced. I don't have to re-explain how I learned to bow do I?"

Katara shook her head, still trying to keep up with the blind girl. "No, I know how you bow." 'Bow' being the word they used to avoid 'bend' which was taboo in public.

Toph gave a particularly loud grunt as she pushed a boy with long black hair tied with a leather strap, fries scattering along the floor in his wake. She ignored the boy's cries and continued on her path, now just twenty feet from her target. "Yeah, well _I _was underground, practicing one day and bwam!" She pounded her fist into her palm for emphasis. "This kid is blown through a wall in front of me! I was only four, so I wasn't as awesome at seeing back then. All I hear is "Nephew! You cast your pants on fire by—!"

"And you will never know the end of that story." Zuko had suddenly disappeared from the table he was sitting alone in, hand covering the blind girl's mouth. He yanked his hand back suddenly and Toph clicked her teeth at him with a wicked grin. A smirk appeared on Zuko's face and he tousled Toph's hair.

"Yeah, don't yell at him." Katara said with her arms crossed, observing the two with warm eyes.

"Eh," Toph shrugged before throwing herself half into a chair, and half onto the table, voice muffled from where her face lay across the top. "He respects the fact that I can easily beat him in a fight."

"Whatever you say, Champ." Zuko shook his head in negation and mouthed 'no' at Katara before sitting much more controlled than Toph. "You guys are ruining my self built reputation. Before long any prissy lowlife is gonna come sit at my table."

"Eh," Toph repeated and slammed her bag onto the table. "Grub time."

Zuko pulled out a tin lunch box with a shrug, a second later pulling out a thermos. Katara sat primly in a chair and pulled out a rather thick book, tucking a hair loopy behind her ear before cracking it open.

"You're not eating?" Came Toph's slightly muffled question, accentuated with crunches through the bag of chips she was munching on.

"Ah, no." Katara replied, flipping a page in her book and looking over the top in disapproval of Toph's manners.

"Its grub time-as in make time to eat grub. Where's your grub?"

Katara narrowed her eyes at the crumbs migrating her way across the table. "Too expensive. Meals here cost me half an hour's worth of work. Also I never have time to read between work and school."

"Books." Toph scoffed and stuck her bag of chips in Katara's direction. "Whan shum?"

Katara glanced between her pristine white book pages and the orange colored grease coating Toph's fingers before inching back a little with a shudder. "No thank you, Toph. Enjoy your artery blocking junk food."

A cup full of steaming tea slid across the table to her, tea trying in vain to slosh over the edges. Katara's arm shot out to stop the thermos lid and raised a brow at the boy across the table. She noted the steam rising from his thermos and the lack of it in her cup. Zuko shrugged, taking a drink of his with a blocked expression.

Katara suddenly smiled at him and gave thanks before taking a tentative sip, feeling warmth spread through her head. She looked surprised and examined the tea more, feeling the slight motes of hunger disappear along with her earlier tiredness.

"Uncle's hangover tea. A blend of a bunch of different plants to 'reboot your system.'" Zuko said indifferent before plucking at his rice with chopsticks. "Uncle knew there was a 'big balloon' last night."

Katara giggled at all the new aliases, snagging the thermos from Zuko to refill her cup and earning a glare from the latter. She had just gone back to reading when a green clad body dropped into the chair next to her.

"Hi." The boy had two hanks of hair framing his rather soft face. "My name's Haru."

"Um, hi?" Katara asked, shooting Zuko a confused look.

"That was great what you did back there." Haru kept looking at Katara in admiration.

"What?" She asked, legitimately confused.

"You were definitely the bigger person! When that guy pushed me down and I lost my fries, I thought I was gonna cry! But then you apologized and I thought, 'yeah, sometimes stuff isn't our fault, but that doesn't mean we can't feel bad about it'." Katara stayed silent, processing what the guy said while Toph gave a loud belch.

"Are you snuffing something?" Toph grunted just as Zuko mumbled loudly in disgust.

"Frickin lowlife priss." And the three of the table's original occupants went back to what they were doing before.

A half an hour of awkward silence later the bell rang and Zuko looked up to Haru staring at him intently. "You have beautiful eyes." The long haired boy said before jumping to his feet and leaving the table.

Zuko turned a pale color before dumping the containers from lunch into his bag. "We're eating outside tomorrow."

"It's almost winter, Sparky. Not all of us are self acclimating." Toph complained, scrambling to her feet to follow the older two teens. "Either of you know where the history room is? I have the Wahoos."

"I believe it's pronounced 'woo' and we have that class next so you can go with us."

"Huh," Toph said, unperturbed. "Must've read it wrong."

"That's Haru." Zuko explained in low tones to the group. "He and his father discovered how to bow in dirt and were found out. He's been washed quite a few times in the past year."

Katara thought back on the boy sitting at her table earlier, now recalling the frustrated looks on his face every time he tried to speak, as if something were blocking his thoughts.

The three picked their way among the masses, chatting idly about the holidays and how they'd spend their breaks.

As soon as they stepped in the room, Katara's eyes were drawn to a girl standing in a subtly powerful position. She made eye contact with the girl's sharp gold eyes and grimaced as Azula nodded minutely.

Suki slipped into the room a minute later, passing a grin to Katara and mimicked stabbing motions as she walked behind Azula. A moment later she sat herself at Katara's table eyeing Zuko appreciatively and earning a kick from Katara.

"Dude, we have a sub!" some guy shouted.

_Great_, Katara thought, _now this sub is gonna throw everything way out of proportion; How I was obviously a terrible student with no book, no paper no—  
_  
"Hello, Miss Katara, Toph, Nephew." She jumped, looking up into the face of the owner of the Jasmine Dragon and sometimes P.E. teacher. Iroh smiled down at her with a crinkling of the eyes that old men have a way of doing. "You forgot this at work last night. Luckily, the Wu's are good friends of mine and it's just by chance they accidentally got sick after drinking tea at my restaurant. But alas, what wonderful opportunity to teach the youth of today." He handed her book to her with a wink.

Katara's face lit up and she took the book with a smile. "Why aren't they here really?"

Iroh laughed, ignoring the incredulous look on his nephew's face and the indifferent one of Toph. "They did not believe how powerful Piandao's herbal relaxant was. As it happens, the less sugar you have in your system, the easier the agent works. Or so we have gathered." His gold eyes examined the room with interest, nodding at the three to stay at their seats. With that he walked to the middle of the two rooms. The two rooms were conjoined with a collapsible wall to blend two teaching styles, giving Iroh an audience greater than sixty people.

"Class. Be quiet now." The noise fell and just about everyone raised their brows, unsure of why it got quiet so fast. "Now today to go along with your Feng Shui unit, we will be delving deeper into our own history. Can anyone tell me how the ancient world was segregated according to elements?"

A few people raised their hands but Aang's hand was as high as it could be in the air, waving erratically. Zuko rolled his eyes, muttering "Dork", under his breath. Katara kicked his chair before returning her attention to Iroh.

"At one time there were four civilizations, the Earth Kingdom, Fire Nation, Water Tribes and the Air Temples where Air Nomads lived." Iroh ignored the young man, instead choosing a bored looking girl with her long dark hair pulled into bands at the back of her head. "Bending was eradicated through the years due to poor breeding and savagery of the Air, Water and Earth savages. The firebenders were eventually extinct do to the destruction the other races caused."

Katara grit her teeth, clenching her fists and fighting the urge to waterwhip the cold girl into no tomorrow.

"Well said." Iroh praised thoroughly ignoring the looks of disbelief on the faces of Katara and her group. "Now the ancient world, according to legend has told tales of people with the ability to 'bend' their elements or control them. Today's activity will be to figure out which of these civilizations and if you would be a 'bender' in these civilizations. But before we can do that, we must first understand the nature of these elements and why they did not survive until present day." Iroh wrote page numbers on the board, instructing them to read before going and getting a hundred question surveys to figure out what element they were.

Katara flipped to the page, interested already despite what she knew was coming. She almost growled at the picture of a crudely drawn tribesman with feverish eyes drenched in what appeared to be blood. _'The Water Tribe, easily the most savage and brutish of all the races was known to be the downfall of bending in the world. Their greed and thirst for power drowned out the cries for help the Fire Nation put up. These animals-'  
_  
Katara stopped reading, hands shaking and white spots of rage appearing in her vision. She was about to slam the book shut when a slim scroll slipped out of the binding. She picked it up gingerly, examining the crushed condition and aged paper before carefully unfurling it.

As she glanced over the writing, it became clear of the ancestry of the scroll. The writing itself was of an ancient language known commonly in ancient times as Southern Dialect, but to Katara and her family it was known as Tungumál Fólk, or Language of the People. With a grin of delight, she delved into the text, trying to decipher words that were lost to time.

She started at the picture displayed. The Water Tribe section displayed a girl her age in a painting with her hair in a braid and two hair stands framing her face where two cerulean eyes glinted like the ice around her. She would have been un-extraordinary if she hadn't been leaning back on an igloo, a stream of water flowing around her head and a band around her neck. Katara looked closer and pressed her hand to her throat, fingering where her necklace belonged. The symbol at the top of the page seemed to pop at her, knowing that she'd seen it millions of times in her life whenever she looked in the mirror or at pictures of her mother and grandmother. The only thing was in this picture, the lines were so crisp as if freshly carved whereas her necklace was worn and softened with time.

'_… The Water Tribes were well known for their compassion and resourcefulness in their surroundings. They had dark complexions compared to others in the world. A woman's hair in the tribe was grown all their lives, a symbol of purity and beauty while the men donned wolf furs and their hair short but long enough to pull out of the way in battle… benders of this element were calm and flowing people. They easily changed and took in change or changed themselves._  
Katara breathed, reading the works repeatedly. She rose silently and walked over to Iroh. "Thank you for the scroll. I enjoyed that reading much more than the other. Is it too obvious to state which I am?" She asked with a wry smile.

They adopted much of their forms of bending by looking at the other elements and incorporating the forms into their own. The sharp, strong form of the Earth benders became smooth, streamlined bending at the hands of the benders. Raging uncontrollable fire calmed under their power, flowing but harsh as fire can be. Air turned to fog and clouds at their hands and benders gained the ability to walk on water…

Some benders had the rare ability of the gift of healing. These benders were able to use their bending as a catalyst to speed the healing process of the body in a natural and non-painful way. Another rarer form of Water bending was introduced by the Nereid of the Black Sun. The waterbender was the start of the so called 'Blood Bending'. She was to play a key part to the downfall of the Fire Nation tyranny and attempts to control the entire ancient world but she fell alongside the Avatar. Her name was lost to history but was in close correlation to the Avatar…

Iroh smiled warmly. "You're welcome, Miss Katara. Just a moment if you will." He faced the rest of the class. "Students, after done filling out the survey, follow the code on the board and figure out what you are. Water, go stand by Miss Katara over there. Fire by Zuko. Air by Aang and Earth by Miss Toph. You will discuss what you have learned and create a chart with each of the following attributes written on the board."

Aang's hand wove in the air again. "Is there gonna be an Avatar?"

"Not today or rather not now. We will explain the significance of the Avatar later. Now split up."

Katara went to the corner and leaned against the wall, watching as kids argued and bickered before splitting up into the nations. Twenty kids went to the Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom, fifteen to the Water Tribes and five to the Air Nomads, and all were boasting or complaining about it.

Azula sat with her arms crossed, staring up at the ceiling in utter boredom while Ty Lee chatted away with the 'Fire Nation' boys who were all wearing smirks and flexing their muscles when they talked. Katara rolled her eyes, catching Aang's as he bounced on his heels in his designated corner. He grinned with thumbs up, mouthing, 'Air!' His enthusiasm gave her the idea that they'd been friends for quite some time, not having talked just once for three minutes.

Katara smiled before scanning the room, seeing Toph push a couple of kids out of their chairs so that she could sit in the back, looking like she pulled the 'blind card'.

Iroh was talking to a couple of other Earth people. Jet and his group had merely exchanged papers so that they were the same so. Needless to say, they all ended up in the same civilization.

Iroh started walking toward the middle of the room and it fell silent again. "The names of the benders will be listed in a moment. Those called, come outside with me quickly and receive your assignment. Those not receiving this assignment will be taking notes during the lectures." The moment the magnet touched the board, loud talking and yells filled the air as kids pushed and shoved to get to the paper.

The gang met in the middle by Iroh. "Hello. I'm sorry to say that not all of you made it into bending. For instance, Miss Suki, you are not a bender."

Suki grinned, "That's okay. I can beat all your bending butts any day." They laughed, got their assignments and sat talking for a few minutes before the bell rang.

"Hey Toph, you want a tour of the school?" Aang asked, holding the door open with one foot as he stuffed papers into his bag, also managing to keep his beanie on his head.

"Sure, why not?" Toph followed him out of the room while Katara, Zuko and Suki trailed behind Azula and Ty Lee inconspicuously.

"I don't think she would've accepted if I had offered." Suki said, pretending to be hurt. Suki had been introduced to Toph while on the Earth Kingdom side but was still unacquainted with the fact that she was truly the only non-bender in their little group.

"I don't think you're her type, Suki. Sorry. I think she likes the tall, dorky, spasmodic type." Katara hugged her history book, thankful that she got to turn her paper in after all.

"Spasmodic?" Zuko asked, speaking for the first time in an hour and raising his only good brow. "I'd say more airheaded."

**E/N: Once again, you guys ROCK! An explanation to a question reguarding Katara and Zuko's confrontation in c3. I was trying to touch on how in the series Katara was always assumed that Zuko was out to kill Aang when in reality he was confused and awesome. In this story, Zuko knows what's up and he knows this time around that he's meant to fix it.**

**The murder begins next chapter and 5 reviews for New Years please! If you're confused, let me know!**

**BOB**


	6. Booksmart Devil

**A/N: AHHH! I tried so hard to cut this chapter but i couldn't! 7110 words just for the chapter itself excluding this note! I got 4 reviews last chapter, which is almost what I asked for but thank you! Here's the next chapter! Oh and if you see 'she' or 'her' instead of 'him' or 'he' etc when reguarding the Dean just realize he was originally an OC then I decided for humor's sake to add someone we know...**

**Booksmart Devil**

Katara reluctantly peeled away from the group, giving Zuko a look he'd understand as she and Suki followed the two popular girls. "Here we go again." Katara muttered, scowling as Azula waited impatiently by the computer lab entrance. "Hey, Azula, has anyone been in here since yesterday?"

"Yes, there are currently three computer clubs that meet in here every day." Katara's face fell as Azula looked on with indifference. "Hurry up. I booked this place for the next fifteen minutes but that's it."

Suki and Katara exchanged glances, the former offering a sympathetic smile. Katara had explained that she had merely lost her mother's necklace in this room.

They threw their bags in a corner and sat in the chairs facing a mini-podium with a book on it. Katara crossed her arms and herself upright so she wasn't tempted to sleep, the effect of the small amount of tea she drank wearing off. Katara sighed and couldn't help but scan the lab floor for any glint that could be a necklace. "Alright you have us down here. What's the plan?" Azula grinned evilly and flipped open a book and tossed it to Katara. "Senior pictures?"

"Ooh!" Ty Lee gasped and took the book from Katara, flipping through the pictures at a startling rate, gushing in appreciation for most of them.

Azula snatched it back, a perturbed yet smug look on her face. "Yes senior pictures. Well the pictures at least we can use. You said before that Jet always has a date—"

"Like no matter what!" Ty Lee squeaked happily, rolling into an uncomfortable looking position on the edge of a desk

Azula glared before turning back to Katara. "The best of those dates being me. However, that is not the point. We're going to make him un-dateable."

"By what? We can't do anything that will cause bodily harm without being arrested." Suki pointed out before a wicked grin came over her face. "Though if we do... I AM the world's deadliest weapon."

Katara eyed her suspiciously before her eyelids started drooping as she leaned further into her chair. She pushed her jacket behind her head for a pillow. Suki gave her an odd look. 'Long day.' Katara mouthed and Suki nodded in understanding, pretending to open a storybook and read it to her.

Katara rolled her eyes and kicked Suki's chair.

"So we're doing the whole estrogen pill thing?" Ty Lee asked while shooting Suki a 'curious look.

"No, we're gonna see how much he can pull off first. Contrary to popular belief, he's not perfect and we need to bring that out. How do you show people their flaws?" Azula paced back and forth before continuing (no one answered) "You take their pictures."

"But he'll just look like an Arnook and Pathik model." Suki said crossing her arms and leaned against the chair, kicking her feet up onto the back of another. "We've discussed this before."

"Then we'll use that. You see my photographer Kuzon Xin Fu is a famous photographer. He can do whatever he wants and I, being the center of control in the school, can use that to my advantage. I'm setting up a school movie night for Thursday where we'll show them all his flaws." Azula surveyed the group with a 'Try me' glare.

Suki chuckled. "How will you make him un-dateable with that? Everyone believes he's perfect"

"Well, uh—he—well…" Azula stuttered.

"Well he only gets it every other night." Ty Lee said before blushing, realizing that she'd spoken out loud. "Girls talk."

"So…what? We put him in a condom commercial? HIV? AIDS? Herpes?" Suki asked, grimacing at the thought of herself in a situation with Jet involving any one of them.

Azula snapped her fingers, pointing at him with an evil grin. "Perfect. I'll handle the photo shoot, convince him Ty Lee—"

"Please, he's the most narcissistic man on earth. One; his ego is bigger than his head." Suki counted off on her fingers."Two; he's more in love with his own face than that of any girl-even that supermodel he dated last year. Three; he could never have enough pictures of himself. He'll fall for anything that will flash at him." Ty Lee giggled at the obliviousness of what Suki said. She looked at cheerleader for a moment before she realized what the giggle implied.

"You better pull this off, Ty Lee." Azula snapped and turned to the rest of the group. "Meet back here tomorrow and don't even think of not going through with this. I know where you live." The smirk on her face was more than a little disturbing.

"This is gonna be great guys! Maybe we can get some good pictures of us in the movie too—"

"No. Too obvious." Azula and Ty Lee bickered as they left the computer lab before going separate ways.

"Uh, Katara?" Suki gently shook Katara. The latter had fallen asleep while Azula was ranting.

"What—?" She asked blearily, rubbing her eyes. "Oh, I guess I fell asleep huh."

"I guess." Suki grinned. "Look I'm already late for work, are you—?"

"Go." Katara said firmly, pulling her backpack up slowly covering her mouth as another yawn wracked her body. As Suki left the room, she dropped her bag to the ground, still looped around her forearms.

"How goes the plot to kill my brother?" Zuko drawled from the doorway, having waited down the hall for the meeting to finish.

"Eh, could be better." Katara slouched over to the doorway, dragging her backpack on the ground. Zuko lifted it onto her shoulders, earning a tired grin from her. "Thanks."

"No problem." Zuko raised his good brow, a familiar sign of emotion with him. "Wow, you look dead."

"Oh! Why thank you, Zuko! That's so—" she punched him lightly on the arm, "—_kind_ of you to point out."

He scowled at her and tugged a hair loopy, eliciting a yelp. "See. Hurts don't it."

"I just hit your arm! I didn't yank _your_ hair out, Captain Hotpants." Both glared at each other for a moment before Katara's angry façade cracked and sent her into giggles. Zuko let out a chuckle and pushed Katara down the hall to the main exit. They fell into a companionable silence leaving the school.

"Do you need a ride?" Zuko asked, gesturing to the parking lot as they approached it.

Katara shook her head. "I live, like ten minutes away. It'd be a waste of gas and time."

"No, really. It's no problem I've got nothing better to do." Zuko said then stopped, palm-facing himself mentally. "I'm sorry, that came out wrong. I meant that there was nothing I'd rather be doing."

"It's fine Zuko and sure I'll take a ride." She grinned again, seeing the disgruntled look on his face.

"Great." Zuko rubbed the back of his head as he tried to remember where he parked. He saw a glimmer of orange out of the corner of his eye and started walking toward his own rundown Leechywagon Beetle. "She's not much."

Katara did nothing to cover her smile while looking at the car. The thing was old and a little rundown but he obviously was proud of it and she could tell this wasn't something daddy flung a hundred K's at to find it wrapped around a light-pole two days later. Then again the thing might not get enough speed to wrap itself around a pole.

He probably worked his fingers to the bone in order to buy the thing alone-that or burned them to the bone making tea. "I like it Zuko. It's you."

"What? All marked up?" He asked coolly before unlocking Katara's door, looking away so he didn't see his reflection in the door's window.

"No, I was gonna say old and grumpy looking." She said climbing in and tugging the door closed, hearing the metal groan in protest.

"I'm not grumpy." Zuko muttered, putting the key in the ignition and turning it, the car letting out a clanking roar.

"Yet, you don't object to being called old?" Katara questioned, yanking her seatbelt and buckling it with some difficulty.

"It's a fair enough statement, considering I'm older than you." Zuko stated, un-jamming his seatbelt with a practiced air. He checked the mirrors quickly, pulling out of the parking lot and getting onto the main road.

"Well it's not like I could say you were orange. You're practically albino." Katara tapped the russet interior and leaned forward to roll down her window but it got stuck halfway down. "You know my brother works on cars, he could help you fix it up if you want."

She thought about it then grimaced. "Wait, no. That's a bad idea. Forget I said anything."

"Oh?"

"Seeing as my dad is still away, Sokka has decided he needs to fill the overprotective dad _and_ brother role."

"Hmm." Zuko said sympathetically and stopped staring intently at her. "I just realized something."

"Umm, what?" She asked thrown for a bit of a loop.

"I have no idea where you live." He said solemnly, braking at the light

Katara grinned and punched him in the arm again. "I thought it was important. You could just drop me off at work. I've only got an hour 'til I have to go." She pointed to the Three Waves Apartments anyway.

"Oh, no. You are going home to sleep." Zuko thrummed his fingers on the steering wheel, watching for the light turn from red to green.

"Oh! What did they decide?" She slapped her forehead in exasperation as the car started to roll forward again into the entrance of the apartments. "I have no idea what's going on!"

"I would have told you seeing as I was right outside the door but I couldn't hear. You were snoring." She slapped his arm, head still in one hand.

"Quit hitting me." He growled, snorting a puff of smoke from his nose in annoyance. "We're going to wreck."

"You're going five miles an hour through a parking lot. Not much driving involved there." Katara observed the contemplative look on Zuko's face before asking again about the meeting.

"Call Suki later." He said in a slightly childish voice, stopping in front of the apartments. "Uncle gave you the night off considering you weren't supposed to come in last night."

Katara looked worried but her tiredness won out. "Fine. Thanks for the ride Zuko. And for work." She pushed open the door and stepped out.

"No problem." He said as she closed the door. "And Katara."

"Yeah." She shaded her eyes and looked in through the window.

"Don't think about the whole work thing. I don't think Uncle wants face prints in the food you usually deliver after you fall asleep." He smirked and drove off before she could kick his car.

Katara scowled after him, tempted to flip the bird before turning back to the apartment. She heard an exited yapping and knelt before Foof could knock her to the ground. He jumped into her arms, trying to cover her face with slobbery kisses. "Stop, stop, stop!" she giggled, pushing him away gently. He landed on his feet with a plop; ears tilting back to signal that Sokka was calling him.

"I see you got a doggie door. Very wise." Katara grinned, draping her parka on the coat rack.

"I've been known to be wise. Sure enough, his tall shadow draped across Foof's back before Sokka picked the puppy up around the middle and raised a brow at his sister. "Why aren't you on the bus for work?"

"I have a friend filling in for me so I can go inside and sleep." She said carefully before pulling herself to her feet.

"Oh, really. Kat, we need this money that we have coming in. The apartment is not gonna pay for itself." Sokka scolded.

"It was his idea!" Katara cried, realizing her mistake instantly.

"'He' who?" Sokka went into overprotective brother mode instantly.

"Zuko Takutso." Katara said quickly before storming into the apartment.

"Wait! That guy from your diary?" He ran in after her, holding the yapping Foo-Foo-Cuddly-Poops under his arm.

.:..:.

"Hey, Uncle." Zuko ducked under the barrier to the tea counter to grab his apron before ducking back to tie it on.

"Zuko, you are here early." Iroh leaned over the counter to peer at his nephew. "I wouldn't expect you for another hour or so. Are you feeling alright?"

"I'm fine. Katara's not coming to work today." Zuko picked up a wash cloth and ran it over the hand print he'd left.

"She isn't sick is she?" Iroh took the rag from Zuko when he shook his head, staring at the front of the latter's apron. "Though I suppose she did do quite a bit of bending last night. Oh, no."

"What?" Zuko looked down at his uniform, trying to see if there was a spot.

"You hit her with your car didn't you?" Iroh grinned and ducked under his nephews half hearted punch. "I will still give her tonight's pay. She works much too hard for one of her age."

"I'm her age." Zuko said sulkily, pulling down various implements to start his tea making.

"You are not her age. You are a year or so older than she is." Zuko threw a scowl in his uncle's direction.

"She is also a great person. Did you know that she has straight 'A's in her classes?" Iroh watched as Zuko pulled down a couple cups and poured his favorite tea.

"Yeah." Zuko frowned, trying to see where Iroh was going. He realized too late.

"She is also quite beautiful. Her eyes are truly amazing aren't they, Nephew?" Iroh chuckled as Zuko turned red and threw the rag he had previously been using at him.

"Uncle! Don't you have a customer to be serving or something?" Zuko snapped before heading into the backroom.

He leaned against the door and slid down to the floor, head in his hands. "I knew coming to work early was a bad idea." He moaned, punching the door as he heard his uncle laughing.

.:..:.

"Hey, Jet. Can I ask you something?" Azula tapped Jet on the shoulder and smiled coyly at him.

"Yeah." He said coolly, flipping his hair out of his eyes, making the girls behind him sigh in appreciation.

Azula kept her smile on her face when he smirked as he followed her to a secluded corner. "Listen, I know we're not supposed to talk in public," she dragged a dangerously sharp nail down his arm. "But don't let that get in the way of what I'm asking you."

"No problem, babe. What do you want?" He flipped his hair out of his eyes again as he leaned against the wall, taking her hand in his

"The girls at Ba Sing Se's finest high school want to dedicate a page in the yearbook to you. Would you mind coming to meet Kuzon Xin Fu with me to get your photos taken?" Azula had to stop from smirking as his eyes widened slightly from their usually sleepy look. 'Gotcha' she thought. "If you're too busy—"

"No, no. It's cool. Anything for the girls. Today right?" Jet uncrossed his arms and flipped his hair out of his eyes—again.

"Right now actually. Kuzon's in the limo right now. He was something about a movie ad—" Azula was cut off by Jet grabbing her arm and dragging her to the parking lot.

The chauffeur opened the door and Azula slid in before Jet could and pulled out her cell phone to text Ty Lee. Meet at West Point. Jets here. b ther soon- Queen B

K ;) –Pink Cheer

Azula smirked before clearing her expression and throat. "Kuzon, this is Jet Takutso. The one I was _telling_ you about."

"Well he is just _gorgeous_! A perfect model equals a perfect picture!" Kuzon gushed, winking at Azula. She smiled prettily at him before leaning back for the twenty minutes of limousine ride to the beach. _Inflate his ego just a little bit more, Kuzon. Then we'll crush him._

"Ty Lee." Azula hissed in false anger before jumping out of the car. "What are you doing here?"

Ty Lee examined her bright pink manicured nails. "I'm head cheerleader. He's basketball captain. We need to have a picture together." Ty Lee could play the cold hearted mean girl too.

"You'd better not mess this up." Azula crossed her arms and watched Kuzon set up. Ty Lee and Jet changed in the tents into their uniforms before waiting by Azula.

"Jet, we need some individual shots." Azula smiled, sending him to take pictures with Kuzon.

"Do you really think this will work?" Ty Lee asked quietly, watching as Kuzon positioned Jet by the dock, sun close to setting in the back ground.

"Just watch." Azula whispered back, smirking as Kuzon started talking.

"Alright be pretty for me Jet!" Kuzon started snapping pictures as Jet flinched in surprise before making supposedly handsome poses, flipping his hair and squinting his eyes. "Make me love you! Love me Jet! Love me!"

"Now pout for me Jet! Pout for me!" Jet did the grimace thing from Rogue while Azula and Ty Lee laughed silently. "Hate me Jet! Make me hate you!"

He looked confused for a moment before Ty Lee cried "Roar!" Jet bared his teeth and roared. Azula turned around so he didn't see the evil laugh she was trying to contain.

"Ty Lee now!" Kuzon kept snapping wildly as Ty Lee smiled innocently before hugging Jet and kicking her leg in the air with a girly giggle. Jet put his hands on her waist and tilted his head as if to kiss her. "Perfect! Now make her hate you Jet! Make her hate you!"

Jet roared and Ty Lee fell back, feigning fear and throwing her hands in the air with a fake scream on her face. A second or two later Kuzon stopped. "Oh, we've lost the lighting. We'll finish up another time. Pleasure to shoot you Jet."

"Pleasure's all mine." Jet said, eying Ty Lee with a gleam in his eyes.

Ty Lee flipped her braid before moving to join Azula, winking at the golden eyed girl with her back still to Jet.

"Oh, Jet. My chauffer can drop you off back at your house. My other one is bringing the white limo for me." Azula waved him off before he could say anything else.

"How are these dear?" Kuzon asked, shadowing the screen so she could see the pictures.

"They're perfect." Azula's eyes glinted like polished gold.

.:..:.  
"Hey Zuko!" Katara yelled as she ran towards his car. "What did Iroh say about work? Did he mention me"

_Oh he mentioned something. _Zuko blanched at the thought but hid his face pretending to struggle when he pulled his backpack up from the back seat.

"Hey! Did you hear me?" Katara tapped on the passenger side window, making him hit his head on the back of the passenger armrest. "Ooh, sorry." She winced.

"It's fine. I'm fine."_Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!_ "It's all good. Iroh said he'd still pay you for last night." Zuko pulled himself out of his car with a groan before locking the doors and slamming the driver's door closed.

"Oh, tell him he doesn't have to do that. I'll work it off later this week." Katara locked her arms around her World History book (which she didn't forget today).

"Forget about it. He's already made up his mind. For some reason he likes you. Can't imagine why…" Zuko frowned as they walked toward the school, eyes dancing.

"Funny. Hey aren't you forgetting something?" Katara gestured toward his car.

He stopped at looked at the car, thinking. "No. I don't think so."

"Weird." She looked confused and stared at the car. "I could've sworn you forgot your pride on the door frame." Zuko scowled as she grinned and started to walk away.

"Ha. Ha. Truly your wit is outstanding. It's hard to believe that Uncle says you're not just a straight 'A' student." Zuko stiffened as he spoke without thinking.

Katara stopped to give him a queer look. "You and Iroh were talking about me?"

He sweat dropped. "No. He was talking about you. Bragging to all the employees that you show up to work every day and keep good grades."

She beamed at him as they turned different directions to get to their classes.

Zuko sighed in relief, heading for advisement where, lucky him, he got to deal with his lovely brother. First step in the door, he knew it was going to be a bad day.

"Hey brother." Jet drawled, hooking his arm around a blonde with an inch thick of makeup.

"Bye Jet." Zuko dropped his backpack on the table, turning his head slightly so he could see if Jet was going to throw anything at him.

"Did you hear? I had a photo shoot last night. As it turns out the girls here a Four Nations wanted to dedicate a couple pages in the year book to me." Jet knocked knuckles with a fellow football player nicknamed Pipsqueak and flipped his hair for the girls sitting on the counter behind him. A few sighed wistfully.

"Great Jet. Did you get to wear that bikini you were modeling for your father? You know those heels you have match perfectly." Zuko grinned at his brother, the guys behind Jet stifled laughs as Jet clenched his fist in fury.

"No actually I got to model with one of the captains—"

"Oh, so your boyfriend decided to model too? I'd hide my face in shame if I were him. Was it you Pipsqueak?" Zuko smirked as Pipsqueak lunged and was held back by his team mates.

"Actually it was Ty Lee. Cheerleader captain." Jet said coolly. His attempt to get a come-back was hidden to those who didn't know him as well as Zuko did.

"And I'm sure she was the envy of all the guys on the team. Then again, I feel bad for her. She must have had to wait hours to get the photos while you were doing your hair." Zuko flipped his hair in picture perfect imitation of Jet.

"You know what brother? I think you're jealous." Jet drawled, picking up a pen from the table and flipping it into the ceiling.

"You know what? I think I am! It's true; I've always wanted to be a male model." Zuko said thoughtfully. "Looks like my dream just flew out the window."

"No that dream vanished as soon as you were born. What would they do Zuko? Just shoot your right side?" Jet put a disgusted look on his face. "Then again wouldn't want to break the camera. That scar does work pretty well to cover the ugly right up."

Zuko remained indifferent. "You know Jet; people have told me I have beautiful eyes. Or I could hand model. But I don't know about that since my nails aren't perfectly manicured like yours are."

Everyone reflexively looked at Jet's hands. They were actually filed and trimmed into perfect length with white half moons on the tips.

"Not so friendly this morning, are you Zuko?" Jet sneered the blonde giggle and stared at him in admiration—or rather infatuation. "Not get enough sleep, little bro? That's what happens when you don't have a house to sleep in." Jet withdrew his arm from the blonde (much to her disappointment) to walk over and stand behind Zuko. "Getting kicked out of the house was your fault."

Zuko turned and glared. "I left. I didn't get kicked out."

"My word against yours. Was the mansion not good enough for you Zuzu? Wanted to go with your fat, old uncle who can barely walk let alone brew a cup of tea?"

Zuko's mask of indifference turned into one of rage. "If you know what's best for your pretty-boy face you'll leave him out of this."

Jet smirked at him. "You're just as pathetic. I'm surprised he hasn't gone out of business. You know father could call in to the insurance company and lower his account balance. Then I dunno, one of your uncle's burners might just catch fire." He grinned as Zuko tightened his fist against his thigh, knowing he wouldn't be dumb enough to try his magic-whats-it in public. "What are you going to do? Have _him_ sit on me? Or would—"

Jet's head snapped back with a bone crunching thud, blood streaming from his temple before he fell to the tiled floor unconscious. Zuko stood where Jet had previously been, left hand shaking in rage while his right looked deformed with blood spattered over the crushed knuckles.

The blonde screamed high pitched and drawn out before she fainted at the sight of Jet's blood. Zuko slung his backpack over his left shoulder, turning with his head down to leave the room. People scattered from him as he walked through the hallway to the front office, finding his way to the Dean Kuei office before anyone could tell him.

.:..:.

"Katara could you deliver this to the office please?" Mr. Boulder asked her, waving a detention slip in the air without looking up.

"No problem Boulder." Katara said, grabbing the slip and waved to Suki.

She walked absently to the office, wondering about how the meeting went last night.

"Here, Ms. Berns." Katara handed the slip to the receptionist who looked up startled. She'd been listening to the conversation Dean Kuei was having with a student.

"Oh, thank you Miss Katara." Berns said glancing at Katara's ID clipped to the bottom of her shirt.

"Mrs. Berns," Dean Kuei poked his head out from behind the door. "Would you be a dear and get some ice? His hand is swelling pretty badly. And some towels with water?"

Berns nodded when Kuei went back in she looked at her desk in exasperation. "I'm swamped. Homecoming letters need to be sent out." It seemed to Katara like she was hinting. She took it.

"I can go get them Ms. Berns." Katara offered, curious to see who was in the office.

"Would you?" Ms. Berns beamed as Katara nodded. "Just go to the athletic trainer. I'll write you a note for Mr. Boulder when you get back."

Katara smiled and left the office at a walk then as she reached the stairs into the athletic hallway she broke into a jog. "Hey, coach Pakku." She greeted the athletic trainer/football/basketball coach. "Can I get some ice for Ms. Berns? Not for Ms. Berns but a student who hurt his hand. We need some towels and water to clean up with too. She said there was blood."

Pakku scowled. "He's not a basketball player is he?" He crossed his arms until Katara answered.

She scowled right back. "She didn't say. I'm sure that if it was a basketball player a couple of dimwitted cheerleaders would be sobbing outside the office waiting for him. The ice please."

Surprisingly Pakku grinned. "Fair enough." He reached into the icebox with a bag to gather the little ice pellets at the bottom. "You remind me of someone." He said thoughtfully, tying the bag with a quick spin then twist. "And you know not to apply this directly to the skin?"

"Yep. My Gran-Gran taught me everything she knew about nursing people." Katara said proudly, thinking to herself _plus a little more, _before taking the bag from Pakku and grabbing the towels as well as a spray bottle of water on the way out. "Thanks Coach." She called before he could answer.

She skipped two or three stairs at a time before jogging to the office. "That was quick." Ms. Berns looked at her watch. It had only taken Katara three minutes to go to the other half of the school and back. Then again everyone was in class and the hallways were empty. "Just go on in. Dean Kuei won't mind."

Katara nodded and entered the room, curiously looking at the boy slouching in front of Dean Kuei's desk. "Ash, Miss Katara. Thank you." The boy turned slightly to Katara. She scowled at him. "How have you been adjusting to Four Nations? I haven't seen you in a few weeks. Made any new friends?"

"I've been doing well." Katara said pleasantly. "And as far as friends go, you're looking at the idiot."

Zuko grinned at her but she still scowled. "Let me see your hand." She said firmly, sitting in the chair by Zuko.

Dean Kuei looked a bit surprised, pushing thin wired glasses back up on his nose. "Oh, well that's good. Do you need to be in class right now?"

Katara smiled sweetly. "Mr. Boulder said I can stay. I have like a hundred five percent in his class." Kuei's mouth formed a little 'O'. "Plus I've been trained in first aid."

Zuko reluctantly put his hand in Katara's. She hissed in sympathy and sprayed it with the water before gently patting it dry. The knuckles were badly deformed and already a dark and pulpy purple-red. "What did you do, punch a brick wall?"

"Jet's head." He said grimly, looking at Dean Kuei, taking his disapproving look with his head high. "It's close enough. Just as thick."

"You knocked him unconscious Zuko Takutso. He has to get twelve stitches." Dean Kuei looked down on him while Katara shook her head disappointedly.

She placed a towel over his hand and the bag of ice to cover it, holding it in place with her right hand. "Dean Rivers could you get me some Sleety-warm or something?"

"I have Bio-Frost in my pur—bag. I can get it real quick. Don't leave." He told Zuko sternly before turning and hurrying from the room.

Katara sighed, looking Zuko in the eye. "I'm actually disappointed in you Zuko." He looked away, more affected by her words than Dean Rivers. "It's one thing to punch Jet, but another thing entirely to be dumb enough to punch him in the skull." He looked at her, startled at the wry smile.

"Next time punch him someplace softer. Like his nose or an eye."

Zuko was still grinning when Dean Kuei walked in. He handed Katara the medicine and looked down at Zuko. The grin slowly faded as he met her eyes. "Are you going to tell me why you punched your brother now?"

"I don't claim him." Zuko joked lightly. It was dampened immediately by Kuei's hard gaze. "Fine. He was attacking my family."

"What do you mean?" Dean Kuei asked confused, finding his chair without moving his eyes, except to gaze lovingly at a stuffed animal bear sitting on the corner of his desk.

"My real family. The family at the Jasmine Dragon. They are always there for me whenever my biological one wasn't." Zuko gritted his teeth as Katara applied the water spray to his hand again. She muttered a sorry, keeping her eyes on her work so she didn't see him shake his head.

"You can't mean that, Zuko." Kuei said quietly. "It's great that you have two families but you can't forget your true family—"

"My true family? My only true family has ever been my mother and Uncle Iroh. I don't want to lose Uncle the same way I lost my mother." He held her gaze firmly but his numbed hand shook slightly in Katara's gentle ones. "My mother disappeared after my father was discussing something like this. Our house was burned to the ground while she was supposed to be home watching me. Now Jet's talking about burning the Jasmine Dragon to the ground."

Katara had been listening intently, but focusing on her work. She gently massaged his hand, willing the cold from the ice sitting next to her knee to seep into his hand. It immediately started to feel more and more like ice so she kneaded deeper, feeling where the bones had shattered and which had just moved.

"Oops. Missed a spot." She said almost silently, spraying his hand with the water, she covered his hand with hers and concentrated on the nerves that had been damaged, realigning them but not actually healing them as to make it obvious. After lined up, she burrowed into his bones, healing the marrow itself and building the blood callus across the openings for the shattered knuckles.

She found the tendons and sewed them back together, using them and ligaments as soft splints to hold the healing bones in place until they could be splinted properly. Next she focused on the muscles, visualizing how they were supposed to knit together and fit over the bones like a glove. She pulled a few muscles tighter to move a few dislocated knuckles without pinching the nerves then relaxed them to fall nicely into place.

She healed the broken blood vessels so the bruise wouldn't get any worse. She also broke up the blood clots again, not letting them settle into one place or they would harden into a hematoma. His skin took on a healthy glow again from the murky purple it had been to a yellow tinged green. Katara's ears started to ring a little but she stood when Zuko stood, not letting go of his hand. "Should I take him to Pakku for examination?"

Dean Kuei looked startled when he spoke but regained composure and a strong but caring look for Zuko. "Don't let this become a reoccurring thing."

"Of course not Dean Kuei." Katara answered for him "Next time I'll knock him out before he can try. Right Zuko?"

He nodded in affirmation and walked quickly out of the room. Katara reluctantly in tow as to she was still holding onto his hand.

"We need to report to his father." Dean Kuei said quietly to Ms. Berns.

"I'll call Iroh immediately." Berns said her eyes on the leaving pair.

.:..:.

Zuko examined his hand, scrutinized every inch. It was freezing cold, except for the palm which was still in Katara's hand. "Wow, that's some powerful stuff you've got." he said, marveling at how the bruise had faded already from the pulpy mess it had been. "It looks great Katara. Thanks. Hey maybe I should've gone back and found my pride after all. Maybe I'd still be sane if I had."

"Are you okay?" Katara eyed his face for any bumps or anything. "You sound a lot like Aang at the moment." She placed her other hand on top of his to heat the skin back up so Pakku didn't think she'd applied the ice. "Oh, wait." She tugged his hand and he hissed in pain.

"Ow!"

"Sorry! Sorry. I didn't mean to. I was talking to Pakku earlier and if he finds out you were the one who punched Jet he probably will break your hand. Nothings broken just so you know." Katara removed her hands showing him that the bones were whole and healthy.

He flexed his hand into a fist experimentally and widened his eyes when it worked. "How—?"

"Zuko!" They turned to see Iroh running—actually running—down the hall toward them.

"Well, I can tell this is gonna be touchy feely so I'm gonna head this way. I'll see you at lunch!" she called before running back to Boulder's class five minutes before the bell could ring.

.:..:.

Zuko wasn't at lunch. He wasn't in history either when Iroh was teaching the 'benders' how the actual benders' emotions were and how to control their breathing in the rhythm of the element they controlled.

Katara held her head down the whole time. Scenarios played through her head as she breathed deeply, wondering if she was just being paranoid. Knowing the world she actually lived in, she wasn't quite sure. Aang and Suki exchanged worried glances and Toph—well Toph kinda just stood there—but she sensed the way Katara was feeling at the moment and warned the other two to just lay back for a while.

"Iroh?" Katara tapped him on the shoulder. "Iroh, where's Zuko?" she asked, wondering if the basketball team had gotten to him—or worse. His father.

Iroh looked at her for a moment where she saw a fear shining in his eyes. Finally he said. "He's safe."

Katara went to the club meeting after school, sitting distracted the whole time Azula and Ty Lee showed their ecstatic proposal and showed the advertisement that was going on the big screen the next night. She was still puzzling over the look Iroh gave her. Knowing the world she lived in though, it wasn't looking bright. Suki shot her worried glances the whole time, but Katara was too zoned out to see.

When she got home, she left immediately for work and when she didn't see Zuko at work she didn't open her mouth for the rest of the night. Iroh was just as depressed, yet somehow he still found the love for his tea. After work she went straight home, passing Sokka in the hallway to her room with a fake plastered smile before lying on her bed for hours, not even entering anything in her diary.

Zuko wasn't at school the next day but Jet was. He had a bandage slung over his forehead, stitches peeking out from beneath the white fabric and his Girls hung more all over him than usual. He played it up more than just a little and added a limp halfway through the day, saying he couldn't see through the bandage so he fell.

Somehow Katara found humor in the time that Toph shoved him from the side into a locker, hitting his head against the metal with a clang. "Oh, no! Did I hit someone?" She asked a panicky and girly voice emitting from where her usual rough and tumble boyish voice came from. She waved her arms around blindly, acting the part of the child her parent though she was until Aang dragged her around the corner.

Katara had to hide a giggle as she watched Aang and Toph slap high-fives and Aang watched from around the corner, giving a stumble by stumble play of how Jet was doing.

Suki released a sigh in relief as Katara approached her locker, a smile finally showing on her face.

Sokka drove his beat down _'03 Land Rider to _pick up Suki (with Katara in the backseat) to the premiere for the School Support Night event.

"Enjoy your night Suki. I'll let you know how it goes." Katara whispered to her as Sokka bought the tickets.

Suki smiled gratefully at her before she met up with Azula and Ty Lee, pretending to be examining a 'Coming Soon!' sign. "Hey. Where's Jet?"

Azula threw her hand in his general direction, pretending to be a preppy and girly as Ty Lee for appearances. "It'll play in every theatre. But I want to see his reaction."

"Me too." Katara followed the two in the theatre where she could see Jet telling his sob story again to a girl with blonde-white hair in a thin ponytail that fell straight down the back of her halter top in curling loops.

Katara and the girls made their way into the upper level seating where they had perfect views of Jet and the girl she recognized as Yue from their humanities class.

Katara sat in the first empty seat she found directly behind Jet. She crossed her arms and leaned on the sticky railing to watch for the first sign of the rep breaking advertisement.

"Hey is this seat taken." A voice asked quietly, as the guy jumped over the chair beside her.

"Yes." She said darkly, still staring at the screen in hopes to make the guy lose interest.

"Even for me?" he asked sweetly.

Katara turned to glare, stopping short when she met Zuko's golden eyes. "Especially for you." She frowned and took her arms off the rail so she could sit back in her chair. "Where have you been?"

"Uhh, ventilation shaft." He actually grinned.

"What?"

"Where I've been for the past hour—the ventilation shaft." He ruffled his hair nervously when Katara raised one expectant brow. "I snuck out. Uncle didn't want me to leave the house."

"So I've been waiting all day, wondering if you were taken by _you know who_, and you have time to hide in a ventilation shaft?" Katara glared at him a moment longer before sighing. "Did you get suspended?" Katara ignored Azula and Ty Lee as they started to talk louder over them.

"Yeah, that and Uncle doesn't want me to do anything with my hand for a week. It's not like I walk on my hands to school or anything. Speaking of my hand—"

"Shh!" Azula hissed, pointing at the screen.

'**Just another happy couple enjoying their evening at the beach…' **The picture captioned when a picture of Ty Lee and Jet appeared. It was the picture of when Jet was pretending to almost kiss her.

"Hey, is that you?" Yue's voice carried up into the seating where the club was.

"Yeah. I do so modeling on the side. Interested?" Jet wrapped his arm around Yue and looked in her eyes before returning to the screen. It showed the one where Jet was doing his trademark hair flip while looking at the camera. '**Just another pretty face**?'

The picture changed suddenly, showing the facial shot of Jet roaring. **'Or the face of Genital Herpes!**'

Gasps ran through the theatre full of Four Nation students and Azula offered her hands to Katara and Ty Lee for low fives, a smirk growing on her face.

"What?" Yue jumped to her feet, spraying soda all over Jets face and shirt after she'd taken a sip.

"Hey!" Jet said at the same time, glaring at the screen in bewilderment. "That's not true!" he tried to grab her hand but she screamed and shook her hands at him as she ran from the theatre.

The theatre itself was in uproar, booing and hissing at Jet.

"Sick, dude!"

"Aww, gross!"

"Eww, don't let him touch me!'

"THAT'S NOT TRUE!" Jet roared, throwing his hands in the air, knocking the fashionably place bandage from his head. "I DON'T HAVE HERPES!"

The club howled with laughter, all leaning over the railing to see clearly what he was doing. Katara grabbed a handful of popcorn spilled from some outraged teen and threw it at Jet. Soon popcorn and soda started raining down on him from all around the theatre. He ran, covering his head and still yelling incoherently.

"Yes!" Azula yelled, but not over the melee. "Jet Takutso is so dead!"

**E/N: Thanks again for the reviews! Happy new year! You find out who Berns is next chapter. Let me know if you want a non Zuko and Katara centric chapter. I have some other characters I should touch up on!**

**5 please!**

**BOB**


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